Yan Yean Reservoir is the oldest water supply for the city of Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is built on the Plenty River

Plenty River

The Plenty River is a tributary of the Yarra River in Victoria, Australia. Originating in the forested slopes of Mount Disappointment, the Plenty River is the source of Melbourne's first major water supply in the form of the Yan Yean Reservoir....

 a tributary of the Yarra River

Yarra River

The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...

, 30 km north of the city. A 9.5 metre embankment holds back 30,000 megalitres (30 million cubic metres) of water. Work began in 1853 at the height of the gold rush, and it took four years to construct at a cost of £750,000.

The reservoir is managed by Melbourne Water

Melbourne Water

Melbourne Water is a government owned statutory authority that controls much of the water system in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia including the reservoirs, and thesewerage and drainage system that services the city.- Overview :...

 as part of the water supply system for Melbourne.

At the time of its completion in 1857 it was the largest artificial reservoir in the world.

It was designed by James Blackburn

James Blackburn (architect)

James Blackburn was an English civil engineer, surveyor and architect best known for his work in Australia, to which he had been sentenced for forgery...

, an English Civil Engineer

Civil engineer

A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...

 and former London sanitary inspector who was transported to Tasmania as a convict

Convict

A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...

 following charges of embezzlement. After being pardoned he came to Melbourne in 1849.

The Toorourrong Reservoir

Toorourrong Reservoir

Toorourrong Reservoir is a small reservoir located on the southern slopes of the Great Dividing Range approximately north of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is operated by Melbourne Water and forms part of the Melbourne water supply system...

system, constructed in 1883–1885, supplies water to Yan Yean via an aqueduct.