Learn how the drainage system helps protect communities from flooding.

Retarding basins play an important role in reducing flood risk, temporarily storing stormwater during very high rainfall.

Melbourne Water has played a significant role in Melbourne’s development, from creating our underground sewerage system in the 1890s to completing Thomson Reservoir, Melbourne’s largest water supply reservoir in 1984.

Find out more about key moments in our organisation’s history.​

We are responsible for managing different types of heritage, including built, indigenous, contact and natural heritage.​

Access to clean water has shaped human settlements throughout history, and Melbourne is no different.

Follow the history of Melbourne’s sewerage, from open sewers and thunderboxes to sustainable resource management and recovery.

​The town of Cocoroc was built in 1894 at the Werribee Sewage Farm to house its workers. Discover its many fascinating stories.

The Western Treatment Plant has played a crucial role in Melbourne's development, treating our sewage since 1897.

As a community, we value our rivers and creeks and consider them to be important environmental and recreational assets. However this was not always the case in the past.​