In conjunction with the City of Melbourne we harvest and recycle rainwater from the roof of the Victorian Archives Centre in North Melbourne. The 14,000 m2 roof collects 11 megalitres (ML) of rainwater in an average year.
The rainwater is used in the Victorian Archives Centre’s sanitary system as well as by the City of Melbourne to irrigate street trees. The City of Melbourne is also investigating other uses for our harvested rainwater, and has set a 40 per cent water savings target for the municipality by 2020. They’ve identified our Rainwater Harvesting Project as an ‘environmentally friendly innovation’ that will help to achieve this target.
The project was made possible through the Federal Government Community Water Grants program. The Community Water Grants program provided more than $120 million to fund more than 3,000 water saving projects nationwide. The project was also funded internally, by the City of Melbourne and the Victorian Government.
There are currently four rainwater tanks installed at the Victorian Archives Centre, with a total capacity of 0.50 ML. We estimate these tanks can save up to 2.75 ML of water annually.
We are continuing to work with the City of Melbourne to increase our water storage capacity to 1.55 ML, which we hope can save as much as 6.55 ML annually. In the future, we also plan to reticulate the water to the Lost Dogs Home in North Melbourne and, as storage allows, for the benefit of the greater community.
View our online exhibition, Water Stories, a collection of works relating to water and landscapes in Victoria featuring maps, plans, photographs and other records from our collection.
