The Thousands

Pound Bend is a gnarly 145-by-6-metre tunnel that diverts a bend in the Yarra through a limestone hill in Warrandyte State Park. Its history is riddled with the kind of tragi-comic failures that prove huge amounts of effort and ingenuity don’t necessarily lead to any reward. In 1870 a prospecting company decided to hack out the tunnel with the intention of draining the riverbed and mining the sweet, sweet riches underneath. Two years and several deaths later the site was finally ready to be plundered only to reveal a few measly nuggets and bankrupt everyone involved. In 1884 (and again in 1920) some forward-thinking entrepreneurs thought they could repurpose the now-useless gushing tunnel into a hydro-electricity plant that would power the whole city, but – like many sustainable energy projects since – it never actually eventuated.

These days the true purpose of Pound Bend’s gold rush initiative has come to light: it’s a gnarly big hole that looks cool. Now lazy people like me can spend entire days hanging out on the Yarra bank then trying to swim against gushing waters like it’s an endless swim-spa. It also makes the river a great speed for floating on a tyre tube. The effort is minimal but the reward is high.