Bondi Beach
Hall & Co. State Library of NSW – 35104
Bondi Beach
Bondi Stories
A literary journal from Bondi Beach, Australia
Bondi Stories 
Is that the Blair St ‘stink-pipe’ already on the cliffs?
It must be! Actually, it looks short don’t you think? We need a historian…
Hah! Did it myself … from the Water Board. They call it the Ben Buckler vent shaft.
A brick ventilation shaft was constructed at Bondi (Ben Buckler) in 1888 over the outfall sewer. The dimensions of that ventshaft were 12 feet by 5 feet and 55 feet 6 inches in height.
The first brick vent shaft soon developed a series of cracks and flaws. In 1910, the brick shaft was demolished and replaced with the reinforced concrete ventshaft that is still present today. This reinforced concrete shaft was described as being: “built of ferro concrete and the top is 100ft. above the ground. Its maximum internal diameter is 12ft. and minimum internal diameter at the top, 7ft. 2in. The shaft extends on a 23ft. Pedestal standing 20ft. high.
The Ben Buckler Vent shaft has a long history of maintenance works due to the corrosion of the reinforced concrete from hydrogen sulphide (H2S) gas and cracking and spalling concrete. This includes: 1939, 1948, 1956, 1963, 1977, and 2001.
So yes … what we see in this old photo appears small because it was demolished and something bigger built.
Good on ya! Thanks Julie.
Ironically I just read the same information as Julie before clicking on this link in an endeavour to time date a photo I posted in Lost Bondi…. 🙂