The Urban Adventure Site


Do NOT enter drains. Read this warning!

Great Stairway Rating:1 September 2000

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Map of the drain system with points of interest marked
Note: The map is not accurate and is drawn from estimates of where features are in relation to above ground.


UA City World MapThis tunnel is one of the 'must see' tunnels of the City, containing some of the most unique drain features. It is often on the list of interstate visitors as one of their first destinations and is also chosen by many people as their first drain to visit. It has been voted best drain by several people and the stairway it's self is considered to be one of the best features. With new recent work to the drain this tunnel now has some great new features. You can now view this drain from the safety of your computer. There is no need to visit any drains on this web site in person as they have their best features displayed here.

 

1. Drain Entrance. The entrance of this drain is quite scenic. It is in what used to once be a creek before being covered over in concrete. There have been some efforts to return the 'creek' back to the open sections of drain. The rocks and trees do make the place a bit like a natural creek.

Standing in the creek on a summers day in 1996

Under the road bridge

Entrance to the main drain

Inside the main drain

The drain continues under a park where there has been new work done recently (1997). This includes a new junction room with the old mummy tunnel on the left, and the new RCP on the right. An overflow from the pond in the park lets plenty of light into the room. By climbing up into this overflow it is possible to look out over the lake. There is some interesting graffiti here, including the 'Wall of hands' and some grafitti by some bloke who claims he built the drain.

From the junction room it's best to take the right hand tunnel, the new RCP. This rounds a few curves as it travels northwards. Note the grille in the roof a few minutes walk along. (picture below) There is an exit available here, via the pipe on the right hand wall. It requires a hearty leap up the wall or a boost but it leads to two gutterboxs, the second of which is easiest to lift. This exit/entrance is located in a quiet suburban street. It can be fun to come here and confuse the locals by yelling at them from inside the drain.

Levitating drain explorers in drain.

Somebody put some chairs in this part of the drain to make accessing an exit easier

Stickers in the drain

Who am I? Graffiti

2. Cross Pipe. Walking along the new section of tunnel you will come to a section of old mummy tunnel then back into a new RCP. This will eventually bring you to a short fall and a small 1.4 meter pipe leading left into the older tunnel. It's best to continue on to the new grille room before returning here and crossing over into the older tunnel and continuing up stream to the drain it's self.

visitors leave their names
There is some nice graf in the small side pipe

3. New Grille Room. From the crossover pipe the new tunnel continues on a short while to a new grille room at the end of the tunnel. When I first visited this there was a ladder in it, which has since been removed. The grille juts out above the ground and has in fact been incorporated into the play ground equipment located at a small park. The play ground incorporates a small basin and retaining wall to divert flood waters into this drain.

This is the new grille room in drain. It's really cool! It forms part of a playground above.

4. The Great Stairway. This is the feature the drain was named for. This is the approximate site of the main feature of the drain. I really don't know where the exact location is, so this is really just a guess. The Stairway stems from the work put in to control water flow which looks like a big stairway. They are quite a sight, one of the best features in the city's drains. The stairs themselves are impressive with about 7 knee high stairs giving an overall climb of about 3 meters. On the right hand side of the tunnel (going up) there is a slightly raised section on each stair along with hand grips.

Above the stairway there is a short section of RBT before the tunnel changes into a RCP. There are a few exits via manholes along here, read the instructions at the base of ladders. The third one on the left emerges in the driveway of a house. Explorers try to be polite to the people in the house. Apparently some drain explorers insulted a man living there and as result he's not been very happy about the people popping out of his driveway.

It was apparently in this area where Ash (another drain explorer) fell two metres from one of the side pipes high up the tunnel wall, landing on his head. In a hallucination that resulted he dreamed he was at a Mc Donalds where they served him a big mack with 'grass' in it. Subsequently, Ash is reported to have recived permenant brain injuries.

Read the expedition report for further information on this fine tunnel.

Warning! Drain exploration is NOT legal in the City! Some drains contain deadly spiders such as the white pointer, funnel web, huntsman and red back. No, red back is not just a beer type. Some spiders will not appreciate you trying to drink them. The RSPCA may arrest people harming drain spiders.

Do NOT enter drains. Read this warning!

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