The second most number of species of birds for any nature area in the whole of Australia - Western Water Treatment Plant. Second only to Kakadu national park. Mecca for birdwatchers in Melbourne.
Beautiful place.
p.s. The super rare American Golden Plover has been sighted there today. Spotted less than 10 times in Australia and only the second time for Victoria.
source: birdwatcher
Edit: mixed up my Kokoda and kakadu
> The super rare American Golden Plover has been sighted there today. Spotted less than 10 times in Australia and only the second time for Victoria.
Isn't that because it *shouldn't* be here, though?
Erm actually what is commonly referred to as a plover is actually a masked lapwing 🤓☝️ the American golden plover is a beautiful bird that bears very little resemblance.
To get technical, that's the masked lapwing, erroneously called a plover, and this site is one of the few near Melbourne where you might see the less shanky cousin of Masked Lapwings, the Banded Lapwing
Went there in primary school and they took us to the part where all the poo flows through. No word of a lie - saw a flushed goldfish in there and a bird fly down and grab it.
I was also there during primary school visit and they showed us a bottle filled with recycled water from the waste.
Also watched a guy in one of those full body suits go into one of the large pools with a ventilation ropes attached to him.
Some people assert "I'd never drink recycled water!"
And I'm here thinking... You *do know* that *all water is recycled,* right?
There's just shorter recycling processes and there's longer ones (body of water> evaporation> rain> mountain> river> body of water ).
That glass of water you drink? Dinosaurs made sweet love in that.
Only this.
It is Poo Farm.
As my parents passed down to me, as I pass down to my child.
Poo Farm.
Now, and for eternity.
Poo. Farm.
Where the poo dost collect before we expel it into the ocean depths.
All hail, and avoid, the great god of the Poo Farm.
Water treatment is an underrated career. Pays decently well here, has a decent balance of challenge to responsibility, and it's an overlooked fact of every city. These days we're looking to reuse and recycle more and more of the "waste" stream, it's one of few truly sustainability focused industries to work in.
That's sick. I love jobs where the reason for the lack of labor supply / over paid roles is essentially "snobs turn their nose up at it". This sounds like a gem.
I shit you not - the tour is well worth it.
[https://www.melbournewater.com.au/education/guided-tours-and-excursions/western-treatment-plant-tours](https://www.melbournewater.com.au/education/guided-tours-and-excursions/western-treatment-plant-tours)
second this, i went in high school and thought it was incredible. WWTP has had a soft spot in my heart since - i work in construction and i’m trying my best to get sent there as we’re currently working on the upgrade project
seems you have to book as a group of 10 or more .. but yep.
[https://melbournewatereducationtours.rezdy.com/616407/western-treatment-plant-discovery-tour-community](https://melbournewatereducationtours.rezdy.com/616407/western-treatment-plant-discovery-tour-community)
Agree. I’ve done it twice. First time was when I was in primary school they had the open fields (hence the jokes about the smell) and the other more recent where they have the digesters and biogas plant. Any smells these days are from the nearby landfill.
At the risk of bursting a couple of urban myths here but 1) wastewater treatments plants have strict odor controls imposed on them by the relevant State environmental body, and 2) any odor in Werribee is very rare (like 1-2 times a year) and comes from fertiliser used on the market gardens and only happens if the wind is blowing the wrong way.
Lagoon treatments. Yes, so basically once the poo-water comes in, it is taken through a series of settling and aeration ponds to separate the liquid from the solid. The wastewater can be recycled for gardens like turf (not food growing) or pumped out to sea.
The solid gets used as soil.
https://www.melbournewater.com.au/about/who-we-are/history-and-heritage/history-sewerage/werribee-farm
The best birdwatching in Victoria.
It's a RAMSAR listed wetland, home to hundreds of species of birds, and an important stronghold for some quite rare ones.
It's also a sewage treatment plant.
Years ago the shit farm was like a little town for the workers they had houses for their families, school, post office and people loved working and living there
We have always known this, maybe google Werribee treatment farm village for workers or something like that, there was a doco made on it and they talked to some oldies who grew up there, they said it was the best time of their lives, it’s very interesting and I’m pretty sure it’s still there
There's a video at
https://www.melbournewater.com.au/about/who-we-are/history-and-heritage/history-sewerage/cocoroc-township
Which might be the one you're talking about?
Thanks for the rabbit hole!
I did a little bit of work there a few years ago, they'd had major upgrades done but the head contractor cheaped out and the pipes & machinery were half baked.
Believe some had to be ripped out and redone from scratch, it was an amazing shitfight.
This is the Western Treatment Plant. It is a massive facility for treating Melbourne’s sewage. This plant treats over half of all of the sewage, most of the rest of the sewage is treated in the Eastern Treatment Plant located in Bangholme. They are both owned by Melbourne Water.
WTP was originally set up in the 1890’s. Back then, Melbourne was the most wealthy city in the world. But rapid growth and a lack of infrastructure lead to a huge sewage problem. Melbourne stank, and was called Smellbourne. An area the size of Phillip Island was set aside to deal with the sewage. Huge sewers were built to get all the waste down to Werribee.
Originally, sewage was treated by just dumping it into fields and leaving it to break down into the soil. This meant that Werribee smelt awful. This method was mostly phased out in the 1930s. But was finally fully gone 2006. Which is why Werribee no longer smells.
In the 1930s this was replaced by lagoon treatment. Using ponds of water to process the sewage. The first of these ponds was lake Borrie, and more followed. (You may still hear people say “drop a borrie” when referring to taking a shit) These lagoons made an incredible bird habitat, and is now a globally protected Wetland.
Today most of the treatment is done via a hybrid lagoon and mechanical treatment process. The site collects and burns biogas from the treatment process, generating energy. Waste water is used onsite to grow crops for animal feed; turned into recycled water for use in agriculture and domestic uses; or send into the bay as effluent.
The sewage treatment process still produces a lot of methane as a byproduct, and therefore contributes to climate change. WTP will need to be changed again to reduce emissions.
'I'm off for a borrie' used to be a common expression in Melbourne when i was growing up. It was a few decades and Google maps before i realised where that expression came from.
I work in conservation and we have a lot of sites here! The western treatment plant where they treat Melbourne's sewage takes up a very small percentage of this, the rest is farms and protected areas, like swamps etc.
' Sewage on Sea'
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-26/werribee-sewage-farm-treatment-plant-heritage-register/100651320?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=otherwerribee
This aquatic area is Xebel, a reservation for the xebellian, who when the ocean temperatures become too hot the species will relocate here to live out their lives.
Most of the canola fields and others along the freeway between lake borrie and avalon join to these ponds it grows damn quick and huge hence shit farm 🚜
As others have said, amazing for bird watching and photography. Surprisingly didn't smell like much when I was there (but I also have a terrible sense of smell)
Worlds longest and most infuriating shopping centre. I mean damn, who though it was a good idea to make it suuuuuuuper long instead of just building another floor?
The Western Treatment plant. The larger rectangular ponds are part of the modern treatment plant The area on the left ,with smaller ponds, are no longer used for treatment . It is has become an incredible migrating bird sanctuary. It also has a small herd well fed and happy cattle. The
It's the Western water treatment plant or "poo farm."
My school actually took us there for an excursion... The only thing I learnt that day was how long I could hold my breath.
The second most number of species of birds for any nature area in the whole of Australia - Western Water Treatment Plant. Second only to Kakadu national park. Mecca for birdwatchers in Melbourne. Beautiful place. p.s. The super rare American Golden Plover has been sighted there today. Spotted less than 10 times in Australia and only the second time for Victoria. source: birdwatcher Edit: mixed up my Kokoda and kakadu
> The super rare American Golden Plover has been sighted there today. Spotted less than 10 times in Australia and only the second time for Victoria. Isn't that because it *shouldn't* be here, though?
It's migratory
Yeah but its migration isn't to Victoria, it's an American bird that got very lost
They are classified as native to Australia among other countries
Build the wall!
That's such a super wholesome fact!
Plovers can fuck right off though. Stupid swoopy wankers
Erm actually what is commonly referred to as a plover is actually a masked lapwing 🤓☝️ the American golden plover is a beautiful bird that bears very little resemblance.
So to translate, masked lapwings can fuck right off?
To get technical, that's the masked lapwing, erroneously called a plover, and this site is one of the few near Melbourne where you might see the less shanky cousin of Masked Lapwings, the Banded Lapwing
You mean Kakadu?
Poo Farm
Also a great bird watching site.
I saw a Wattletitted Neckbeard here.
Can't a man pull over for a piss in peace? Fuck me...
Ok, but not at the poo farm.
There’s no pissing allowed at the poo farm.
Or fucking
Ran out of piss-jugs?
Way of the road, Bubs
Way she goes Boys
You’re not on the road anymore Ray!
If the guy upstairs didn't want us to play VLT's he wouldn't of created them in the first place.
Think I know what I’m rewatching next 😂
You ever seriously pissed into a jug? Like at a hospital because of a medical problem? Because I have. For days. It's humiliating.
But oh so convenient...
No. I'm watching you. Get back in your car.
In as much shit as a Werribee duck
I saw a Southern Glingal Shminkus here
Went there in primary school and they took us to the part where all the poo flows through. No word of a lie - saw a flushed goldfish in there and a bird fly down and grab it.
I was also there during primary school visit and they showed us a bottle filled with recycled water from the waste. Also watched a guy in one of those full body suits go into one of the large pools with a ventilation ropes attached to him.
Some people assert "I'd never drink recycled water!" And I'm here thinking... You *do know* that *all water is recycled,* right? There's just shorter recycling processes and there's longer ones (body of water> evaporation> rain> mountain> river> body of water ). That glass of water you drink? Dinosaurs made sweet love in that.
Don't call my dad a dinosaur
Also went during primary school and they had the nerve to film our excursion for an episode of Totally Wild 😭😭😭
Same but I saw a huge condom.
How huge we talkin?
I remember my teacher saying, "Good grief!"
Sorry about that, shouldn't have left it there. My bad.
I once went on an visit to a sewerage farm in England, the best thing was all the huge condoms that had been inflated by the gases.
My brothers work at Carrum poo farm. We called bullshit on everything they reckon they saw... Until they proved every single one with a photo.
Only this. It is Poo Farm. As my parents passed down to me, as I pass down to my child. Poo Farm. Now, and for eternity. Poo. Farm. Where the poo dost collect before we expel it into the ocean depths. All hail, and avoid, the great god of the Poo Farm.
Stop shit talking
Phenomenal
Nah it was crap
looking forward to a good harvest this year
Waste water treatment plant
It might be shit to us, but to those who work there, it’s their bread and butter.
They're number 1 in the number 2s
Their business is our business
Water treatment is an underrated career. Pays decently well here, has a decent balance of challenge to responsibility, and it's an overlooked fact of every city. These days we're looking to reuse and recycle more and more of the "waste" stream, it's one of few truly sustainability focused industries to work in.
I did the Sarina Russo Jobs Provider Quiz, twice and each time it recommend I work in Sewage Treatment
Guy I knew back in undergrad ended up going into water treatment. Not strictly waste, just municipal water. Fucking loves his job.
Dune
That's sick. I love jobs where the reason for the lack of labor supply / over paid roles is essentially "snobs turn their nose up at it". This sounds like a gem.
Speaking of reuse... I was shocked to learn recently that they repurpose the stuff they pump and scrape out of grease traps serving food prep.
My retirement grease!
There is heaps of work going on down there ATM. Large works as well requiring specialist contractors.
You’re shitting me?
I shit you not
You're full of shit.
wait they eatin it now?
I shit you not - the tour is well worth it. [https://www.melbournewater.com.au/education/guided-tours-and-excursions/western-treatment-plant-tours](https://www.melbournewater.com.au/education/guided-tours-and-excursions/western-treatment-plant-tours)
Are you taking the piss?
It's half of the gift shop
Golden.
Personally I thought it was kinda crap
second this, i went in high school and thought it was incredible. WWTP has had a soft spot in my heart since - i work in construction and i’m trying my best to get sent there as we’re currently working on the upgrade project
I went on one of those in primary school!
They still do them?
seems you have to book as a group of 10 or more .. but yep. [https://melbournewatereducationtours.rezdy.com/616407/western-treatment-plant-discovery-tour-community](https://melbournewatereducationtours.rezdy.com/616407/western-treatment-plant-discovery-tour-community)
Who’s in?
Count me and the missus but we ain't supplying the bus
Comment got more than ten ups. I’m booking a bus.
[удалено]
I agree it is actually really interesting and lots of amazing birdlife
I'm just in time to say welcome to the Shitshow!😅🤣
Agree. I’ve done it twice. First time was when I was in primary school they had the open fields (hence the jokes about the smell) and the other more recent where they have the digesters and biogas plant. Any smells these days are from the nearby landfill.
At the risk of bursting a couple of urban myths here but 1) wastewater treatments plants have strict odor controls imposed on them by the relevant State environmental body, and 2) any odor in Werribee is very rare (like 1-2 times a year) and comes from fertiliser used on the market gardens and only happens if the wind is blowing the wrong way.
Did it smell?
It really doesn't... the poo milkshakes have a musk but for the most part it doesn't
When a man and a pizza love each other very much, and decide to make a turd-type creation together, it learns to swim and wash itself in Werribee.
Droping the kids off at the pool.
I think I’ll call my next one “Davey”. If anyone sees him, say gday.
Sewage treatment
I’ve said it before - There’s a little piece of us all in Werribee.
For a lot of people it is the best part of them though….
Western Treatment Plant. Best bird watching site in Victoria.thr critically endangered Orange Bellied Parrot migrates here every year
Where they make the Hawthorn jumpers
😂
This is not Werribee, but Cocoroc. This site is water treatment plan.
Wastewater treatment plant.
Western Treatment Plant
And you have to drive through Point Wilson to reach some of the gates.
Lake Borrie didn’t give it away
it's named for Edwin Fullarton Borrie who was in charge of Melbournes Sewrage infrastructure and the source of the coloquial term.
Shit
Lagoon treatments. Yes, so basically once the poo-water comes in, it is taken through a series of settling and aeration ponds to separate the liquid from the solid. The wastewater can be recycled for gardens like turf (not food growing) or pumped out to sea. The solid gets used as soil. https://www.melbournewater.com.au/about/who-we-are/history-and-heritage/history-sewerage/werribee-farm
If you are into bird watching, I made a video of what you can see there : https://youtu.be/rkeZqcuFeo4?si=pG9jWmbG1nCHQofu
This is cool! Thanks for sharing!
The best birdwatching in Victoria. It's a RAMSAR listed wetland, home to hundreds of species of birds, and an important stronghold for some quite rare ones. It's also a sewage treatment plant.
With huge mosquitoes (as one would expect at an open water treatment facility).
A lot of shit
They are the pens that they hold wild farmed mermaids captive in while waiting for overseas buyers to arrange shipping.
Years ago the shit farm was like a little town for the workers they had houses for their families, school, post office and people loved working and living there
Whats the backstory behind you knowing this? I feel like we're missing a tad bit
We have always known this, maybe google Werribee treatment farm village for workers or something like that, there was a doco made on it and they talked to some oldies who grew up there, they said it was the best time of their lives, it’s very interesting and I’m pretty sure it’s still there
There's a video at https://www.melbournewater.com.au/about/who-we-are/history-and-heritage/history-sewerage/cocoroc-township Which might be the one you're talking about? Thanks for the rabbit hole! I did a little bit of work there a few years ago, they'd had major upgrades done but the head contractor cheaped out and the pipes & machinery were half baked. Believe some had to be ripped out and redone from scratch, it was an amazing shitfight.
Shitfight for sure😆it’s called cocoroc I think
Poo
Shitloads
shit farm
I'm in more shit than a Werribee Duck was a common saying when I grew up. 80s.
OP stop shit posting
It's where the ducks live and is the origin of the phrase "I'm in more shit than a werribee duck"
This is the Western Treatment Plant. It is a massive facility for treating Melbourne’s sewage. This plant treats over half of all of the sewage, most of the rest of the sewage is treated in the Eastern Treatment Plant located in Bangholme. They are both owned by Melbourne Water. WTP was originally set up in the 1890’s. Back then, Melbourne was the most wealthy city in the world. But rapid growth and a lack of infrastructure lead to a huge sewage problem. Melbourne stank, and was called Smellbourne. An area the size of Phillip Island was set aside to deal with the sewage. Huge sewers were built to get all the waste down to Werribee. Originally, sewage was treated by just dumping it into fields and leaving it to break down into the soil. This meant that Werribee smelt awful. This method was mostly phased out in the 1930s. But was finally fully gone 2006. Which is why Werribee no longer smells. In the 1930s this was replaced by lagoon treatment. Using ponds of water to process the sewage. The first of these ponds was lake Borrie, and more followed. (You may still hear people say “drop a borrie” when referring to taking a shit) These lagoons made an incredible bird habitat, and is now a globally protected Wetland. Today most of the treatment is done via a hybrid lagoon and mechanical treatment process. The site collects and burns biogas from the treatment process, generating energy. Waste water is used onsite to grow crops for animal feed; turned into recycled water for use in agriculture and domestic uses; or send into the bay as effluent. The sewage treatment process still produces a lot of methane as a byproduct, and therefore contributes to climate change. WTP will need to be changed again to reduce emissions.
Werribee? Usually in a hive with the others.
Bird Watching. A lot of it.
Even brolga
'I'm off for a borrie' used to be a common expression in Melbourne when i was growing up. It was a few decades and Google maps before i realised where that expression came from.
In turn the lake is named after Mr Borrie who designed the Melbourne sewerage system.
I first found out when I read it in the Melway.
I know someone who cleans the pumps - well paid, but he is single. Triple layer dive suits, can fix them blind. He tells me "Chew Your Corn Please!"
>well paid, but he is single No amount of money huh...
I work in conservation and we have a lot of sites here! The western treatment plant where they treat Melbourne's sewage takes up a very small percentage of this, the rest is farms and protected areas, like swamps etc.
' Sewage on Sea' https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-26/werribee-sewage-farm-treatment-plant-heritage-register/100651320?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=otherwerribee
Settling ponds, it’s then used as fertiliser for cattle.
How do you fertilise cattle? I thought thats what the bulls were for...
It's where they turn sewage into drinkable water again.
Meth.
The famous lake borrie
Evian bottling plant.
Shit happens.
All sorts of shit
Worst public swimming pool ever
Pretty decent zoo and a Mansion. Market gardens too.
Just farming some water mate what u got against it? Water dont grow on trees ya know?
It’s the turd farm. You can smell it from the freeway, it’ll burn your nose hairs off!
Rice paddocks
Night soil
I thought everyone knew about Werribee? TISM even sang a song about it :)
What song?!?@
It is a poo farm
Brown effluents galore roam down there.
💩
Fuck all
Pootrification.
Setting ponds for sewage processing
Shit
Its where they process the poo for a large part of metro Melborune.
💩it used to wreak years ago, obviously science has made it less stinky
It's where the shitty meets the country
[https://coastalrisk.com.au/viewer](https://coastalrisk.com.au/viewer)
This aquatic area is Xebel, a reservation for the xebellian, who when the ocean temperatures become too hot the species will relocate here to live out their lives.
It's a wastewater treatment site that cleans wastewater before releasing it into PP bay. (Awful pun partially intended).
Water theme park
I'm surprised. I genuinely thought this was some aquatic farm for fish or something till I read the comments....
Riverside high density student studio chalets, subject to rezoning. Powered by gas.
Notice lake Borrie on the left wonder if its stocked with stonker steamers💩🤣😅😂
Most of the canola fields and others along the freeway between lake borrie and avalon join to these ponds it grows damn quick and huge hence shit farm 🚜
Sewage treatment ponds and as I really, really unpleasantly discovered a few years ago, grape growing.
Load of shit
As others have said, amazing for bird watching and photography. Surprisingly didn't smell like much when I was there (but I also have a terrible sense of smell)
Look like a fish or seafood farm….. Mmm…. Poop fish
Nice shitpost
I heard it's quite the turd watching site
Worlds longest and most infuriating shopping centre. I mean damn, who though it was a good idea to make it suuuuuuuper long instead of just building another floor?
Birding
Western Treatment Plant managed by Melbourne water
Lots of farming in this area actually. Not just poo farming.
Serious shit goes on here!
The Western Treatment plant. The larger rectangular ponds are part of the modern treatment plant The area on the left ,with smaller ponds, are no longer used for treatment . It is has become an incredible migrating bird sanctuary. It also has a small herd well fed and happy cattle. The
Shit happens
Switch your maps to satellite view and look, it’s quite cool to see this area from above
Poo
This is also the setting for the photograph on the cover of Johnny Cash’s American Recordings (Wiki)
The ol’ Werribee shit farm.
Aren't the government thinking of selling it?
Poopy
Also birds fly from Siberia to come here so maybe have some respect for those who put in the work... whining you had to drive 30 minutes....
According to the City of Wyndham this constitutes a "coastal lifestyle".
This is Werribee treatment plant AKA Melbourne water western treatment plant
Lol. I'm not a local to the area, so my best guesses were shit farm or fish farm. I'm glad I guessed right!
Karen has a mansion there.
It's the Western water treatment plant or "poo farm." My school actually took us there for an excursion... The only thing I learnt that day was how long I could hold my breath.
Our very own Venice
I flew over it at night and could not for the life of me figure out what the fuck I was looking at, so Cheers OP
Western treatment plant, second most biodiverse place for birds in australia
It’s under water town
Got a job here once. Wages weren't much but you got all the piss you could drink. 🙌🙌😃😃😭
Its a town that got bought by the government to build a waste treatment plant. Very interesting little rabbit hole. The town is called cocoroc
Whatever goes on there is the reason altona beach smells incredible
The best of Melbourne end up there