Monday 12 April 2010

Sunday in my City - Water on tap

On Art Gallery Road, near Robbie Burns memorial
Top left: Victor Chang memorial opposite St Vincents
Top Right: Hyde Park south, near War Memorial
Bottom Left: Mid Central Ave, that joined Gardens with Domain
Bottom Right: Grand Drive, Centennial Park

Water is the most precious of commodities. More precious than gold. More precious that shares. Nearly as precious as education, but not as precious as love. We drink it, we cook with it, we bathe in it, we launder in it, we flush with it. Human household uses. But there are also industrial uses and agricultural uses. Water was a marginalised natural resource that was taken for granted. But that is all changing.

Australia is an arid country, and it is not alone on the planet in that respect. Our rainfall pattern is around the coastal fringes, and obviously this is where the population exists. We have creeks, but not a plethora of massive running rivers. No Niles, Mississips. No Rhines, no Danubes.No Amazons, no Yangtzes. Our main river system, one that drains a massive area of the entire continent, is the Murray-Darling which is nearly 3,500 km long.

All three bubblers are in the Botanic Gardens, the two small ones are same bubbler from different angle

Consumers the world over, for the last decade, have been convinced that the only good water to drink is the water that comes in small plastic bottles. This may not be totally true, but it does have people taking water where-e’er they go, and drinking water more frequently. Drinking fountains (bubblers) went out of fashion when advertisers told us that they transmitted diseases and were unclean.

All the bubblers featured here are very close to the inner city, and in areas that were developed in the middle of the 19th century. There are bubblers all over our city and in our major parks. I lost count how many there are in Centennial Park. Nowadays, these are all connected to our main water supply.

Today, I feature the humbler bubbler. Tomorrow, the bubbler gets a roof over its head.

Near Mrs Macquarie's Chair overlooking the Opera House


A member of the Sunday in my City community.

18 comments:

Piyush Garyali said...

I love the presentation on this one. It is bang on. They way you organize your best shots to tell a story is remarkable.

mimbles said...

I went to Manly recently and was quite impressed with the new filtered water bubblers they've installed in the corso - in the sense of being impressed they were there at all, they certainly don't have the aesthetic appeal of the old style bubblers.

Birdman said...

Wonderful collection of fountains. Good show!

brattcat said...

I agree with Piyush. I've come away from this longing for a precious drink of fresh water.

Sonya said...

I love the water photos! I have yet to really capture water with my camera..it's not my camera's fault..it's mine..lol Beautiful pictures!

Anonymous said...

Nice work. So many of Melbourne's bubble taps don't work but then the ones I recall at primary school were pretty erratic in their operation. There was a sprayer, a dribbler...oh, this is sounding a bit off.

Julie said...

*grin*

Joan Elizabeth said...

It's a rare day when I buy bottled water ... I'm happy to drink from a bubbler insanitary or not. Once again you have put together collection and ordinary things found in the city, helped us delight in their presence and made us think.

Jim said...

The variety of bubblers around the city may be as vast as the variety of benches which I've started noticing more often lately.
Sydney - City and Suburbs

T. Becque said...

What an interesting assortment of drinking fountains!

Ebie said...

It is so nice to see all the different fountains around you. Yes, water is essential and I have been drinking lots of it....been doing a lot of hiking.

Great presentation and photography!

Bruce Caspersonn said...

Nicely captured.

Unseen India Tours said...

Nice and beautiful shots !!Very beautiful !!

diane b said...

There sure is a wide variety of styles but I would hesitate at drinking from them. Nice shots.

Killara girl said...

oh the memories...this is where i ate lunch for the most part of a year, when i left business college...i worked for turner freeman, solicitors up on macquarie...i just found the photos last month, but unfortunately there is none of the park, just me eating :)

fantastic photos & lesson :)

Clytie said...

Okay, I'm thirsty now!

I love that the bubblers are unique to each other, and that the birds can get a drink too!

Claudya Martinez said...

Wonderful post. I never heard the term bubbler.

AB said...

I love the light and shade in the first shot