Timaru Civic Trust: Stink pipes

A stink pipe on Timaru's Pringle St overlooking Ashbury Park.
Christopher Templeton / Supplied

By Andrew Paul Wood

In a handful of spots around town you will come across tall, mysterious cast iron pipes sticking out of the footpath, with an ornamental base.

Some still have their elaborate top.

These are not, as sometimes supposed, the remains of old street lamps, but rather, “stink” or “stench” pipes, or stack vents, used to ventilate sewer gas.

The first stink pipes were installed in London after the “Great Stink” of 1858, based on the concept of a blast pipe from a steam locomotive, and allegedly invented by a Victoria surgeon, chemist and engineer Sir Goldsworthy Gurney (1793-1875).

It isn’t entirely clear when Timaru’s stink pipes were first installed, sometime between the 1880s and 1910s.

Timaru’s population nearly doubled between 1878 and 1901, and doubled again by 1911, making sanitation a priority.

A letter to The Timaru Herald on July 10, 1906 describes a sorry state of affairs with “150 water closets, besides numerous baths, lavatories and sinks” in the CBD draining directly into the two main sewers in George and Strathallan streets.

What sewers there were had originally been designed for stormwater and only with the growth of Timaru, pressed into service for general drainage.

The letter writer complains about the dangers of sewer gas, particularly the corner of Stafford St and Cains Tce, and “in other parts householders plug and fill their baths or put sacks over the drain inlets to prevent the escape of the sewer gas”.

Sewer gas is a mixture of mostly methane, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia and carbon dioxide, produced when organic material breaks down in low‑oxygen environments. It smells like rotting eggs, though the actual health risk was overstated.

The germ theory of disease dominated from the late 19th century, but the idea of “miasma” – that disease could be caused by bad air and foul odours – carried along with it the belief it contributed the right conditions for germs.

The other concern was the danger of sewer gas explosions, such as those reported from Auckland, Dunedin, Melbourne and London in the first part of the 20th century.

A report from the District Health Officer to the Timaru Borough Council from August 24, 1915 complains that the George St sewer, carrying a lot of industrial waste, was only serviced by three six-inch vents.

These functional artefacts are important reminders of Timaru’s developmental history, even if their purpose was less than glamorous.