The Urban Adventure Site


Do NOT enter drains. Read this warning!

UA City World MapGross.
Rating:
Updated 12th January 2001

We have explored this drain quite a few times now and even though it is quite a good drain for the City it sends chills up our spine. This is because of the graffiti in the drain, and a very disturbing seeming too coincidental water feature.

Map of 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.

Entrance.

The overflow basin where we first triedto get inWe pulled up in the flashy Drain-Mobile� and started looking for this drain from the car park near the swim center car park. It wasn�t in the oval so we drove around the grass looking for the thing and finally spotted the floodway under a road and the bike track. We followed that downhill to the drain entrance. The entrance to this drain is a bit deceptive. At first we thought that we would have to get in through a seemingly impassible grille located in a flood basin. This is because we were reading the instructions on the old Cave Men web site which we have to admit, despite of it�s flaws, has been an inspiration to us.

We hunted around, looking for an entrance, trying to pop manholes and finally we walked up to a main road. There, at the intersection with was an easily accessible entrance to the drain, albeit in a very unusual shape. An upside down �V�.

The entrance

Like most of the City�s drains the entrance to this one was recently painted over and almost graffiti free. There was some stuff about 2Pak who�s name we also saw way down at another drain Possibly another City drain explorer?

This a real weird drain because some council dudes seem to have considered that it needs a bit of landscaping and have chucked down a nice layer of tan scoria pebbles on the bottom of the drain. Yes, scoria is a word. Look if Microsoft spell checker says it is a word, then it is a word. All hail mighty Bill - not!

light at the end of the drain

See what did we tell you, plain weird. Funny shaped drain entrances. At least it was easy to get in and out of.

The first junction

First chamber.

We wandered in to the drain, past a split which we later wandered up past. The side tunnel leading almost back the way we came ended in a small chamber with a little pipe leading in. Judging from the smell the pipe led to the nearby pool because it stank of chlorine.

Walking back down the drain we almost tripped over a metal star post jammed across the drain at knee height. The remains of candles showed that the thing had been there a fair while.

We reached the first of several chambers in the drain. We were immediately taken in by the large amount of poetic and religious graff. There was bits from religious nutters of both sides. Most interesting was the pissing target, and some of the poetry which was very insperational. The person who wrote it must have been a very special person indeed in our opinion, no sarcasm at all. The poetry was great, well worth reading. Soneek was not happy with the pissing target, complaining whoever set it up gave the boys an unfair advantage.

The first chamber was full of weird graffit

Never have I had a friend like you Talk to me softly

We took in some of the graffiti then climbed over to the other tunnel because we could see light down it. We walked down stream.

About a minute�s walk down the drain we were shocked to hear the sound of water pouring into the drain somewhere ahead. Water falling in a drain can sound deceptive. Even a small amount of water falling only ten centimetres can sound like a waterfall. You can walk for up to twenty minutes down some drains, expecting a waterfall around the next bend as you get closer to the sound of the water. Then finally in your flashlight beam you see a little piddly amount of water falling from a side drain or something.

We walked down towards the light where we found another cross chamber. There out of a side pipe some water was falling, not much at all. Now so what you say. Well each and every time we have explored this drain the water has poured out of this pipe about a minute after we start to walk down from the first chamber and stopped as soon as we reached the grille room. On top of that each time we reach the last chamber water has poured out of the side pipe there and stopped shortly afterward. Spooky huh?

- We finally worked out what this is caused by. The local office blocks have an integrated air conditioning system which periodically dumps warm water into the drain.

Grille.

Spooks and spectres aside we�ve been down this drain three times at least. Maybe it�s just the cops in the Police headquarters right above the drain letting go some water to scare us off. Could be any thing.

A bit of a way down the left pipe of the drain is a large grille room with a great view of the trees on the road above. On the left (west) side of the grille room is a �wading pool� debris retention system. We wonder why it is even there because most of the debris ends up seeping through anyway and there seems to be no way to open the grid above to clean the basin.

The grille in Gross's Tomb is the main feature of the drain

Looking back towards the entrance.

The terribly observant of you will notice the �warriors� graffiti on the walls of this grille room. Tonnes of research later (okay, so we asked a couple of mates) seems to indicate there are no �warriors� in the City and never were. Except for a passing rugby team that is.

We had fun trying to see who could jump across the tub of water without getting wet in order to climb the ladders on the walls. One of the times we were exploring this drain was right on a hot day so we had plenty of pedestrians to amuse. You can imagine our surprise when this babe in a skirt walked right over us. What a view. I think it was worth the five minutes of berating comments from Soneek.

We sat in the pipes in this drain looking up. Whenever we saw someone we�d make weird noises or yell up at them asking if they knew where we were. Eventually some security guard came over to yell at us so we decided we may as well go. We surprised the guard by chucking on polite manners, apologising for our uncouth behaviour and admonishing ourselves for such abandon. Um, yes, we do know what those words are okay. I think most people expect drain dudes to be rude so are amazed when faced with such gracious manners. Mind you we hung shit on him as soon as we were back underground.

Cross chamber.

 

The lower chamber, the pipe on the far wall spilled water on a friend of oursThe last big chamber in this drain is a very well known one. The scene of many earlier pictures from a few of our drain exploring friends and even a local newspaper article of a few years back. It is a nice chamber though nothing exciting. We pulled out a red texta to tag our names before continuing on. Each time we got here water started to pour out of one of the side pipes, the first time it happened it scared the shit out of us. We had just walked a bit down the left pipe leading down to the lake when this roar filled the drain back where we came. We ran off down the drain scared out of our wits and expecting a wall of water to wash us down into the debris collecting net in the lake where we would drown.

We pelted down the drain full tilt till we came to a cross chamber. We leapt up on to the cross platform of concrete between the pipes and sat waiting for the end to come. We were swearing our heads off in panic and wondering what to do next. Should we race up one of the other pipes or would we be safe where we were? We decided to wait where we were, hoping the water would not wash us away.

You really can not imagine the terror that was going through our minds as we sat there for minutes on end expecting a wall of water to come down and wash us to our death. Presently we noticed that the water had not risen appreciably and that the roar from up the drain was not changing in volume. We decided to run up the far pipe back to the cross chamber. When we got there we found a small side pipe spewing water into the drain, a drop of just over a metre, but noisy as hell. Scared the crap out of us. Now that�s why you don�t want to get into drain exploration folks.

The second time was not much better. We were standing there with some local guy called Josh, about to take a picture when water poured out of another side pipe (the one visible on the far wall in the picture above) and wet Josh�s shorts. Looked like he had pissed himself. We told him we had staged the event just for him.

Grille

After walking back to the first chamber of the drain it is possible to walk up to the grille of the flood basin. The bars there look a bit like those of a prison As you can imagine with the fright of the flood of doom hitting us we were eagre to get out of the drain pretty fast. We turned around to head back out again.

Like looking out of those old prison bars


Once again in this drain we found some graffiti about Fil, as we had in Secret Squirrels and Blue drain. "We are not all like Fil" seemed to be the catch call. Made us want to meet Fil all the more. It is a pity that some drain explorers hang shit on others. We are not all like Fil? Who's Fil and what's he like?

Once again well feel it is prudent to warn you that this web site is not intended to encourage you to explore drains. The exploration of drains by inexperienced people may lead to death and injury. You may also shit your pants. For this reason no one should ever go in drains okay. No we are not being sarcastic, this stuff is really dangerous. It�s safer to surf the web and see everything from your home.

Do NOT enter drains. Read this warning!

Best Viewed at Best viewed ar 800 x 600 pixels
About this site
Important warning: This site is intended for viewing pleasure, do not attempt any of these activities
©Copyright notice

© This entire site is copyrighted 1997 - 2006. No image or text may be reproduced, edited, copied, stored in any off-line storage device, or placed on any another website at any time, without written permission from Panic!, web site owner.