As the City of Melbourne boomed and grew, many of the services we now consider essential to good health and wellbeing were unavailable.
As with many other emerging nineteenth-century cities, Melbourne had no reliable and abundant supply of fresh water to meet the thirst of its expanding population and industry. Likewise, there were no pipes layed in the ground to carry the water around and make it available at the places where it was needed. If you wanted water, you had to go where the water was. The disposal of human waste was rudimentary, leading to foul smells and disease. The sewerage system that we take for granted today had to be built from scratch.