Gryphon 1957 - Adm.monash.edu.au

iiiiIii• UPPER YARRA DAMOn Thursday, 30th May, the h igh lyexalted 8th Form travelled by bu s to theUpper Yarra Dam. The tr ip up to thedam was uneventful. Mr . Jack Grey, apost student of Cautec, was our guidefor port of the day. The Upper YarraProject actually commenced in 1929with the construction of the Upper YarraAqueduct and now, in 1957, when wesaw it, the project was nearly completed.The Upper Yarra Dam will doubleMelbourne's present water supply capacityfor it will hold bock 44 ,000,000,­000 gallons of water.Our tour commenced with a trip tothe visitor's look-out from where we hadon excellent view of the earth and rockdam. From there we went to the maintenanceworkshops and inspected someearth moving equipment. After lunchwe went around the bose of the dam tosee the outlet of the diversion tunnel.To get to the tunnel we had to trompthrough several hundred yards of thickmud and slush. On the return journeyone group of energetic gentlemen commenceda race up the dam, but had toabandon the race in order to catch thebus.The spillway was seen next. This incorporatesa ski jump to remove the energyof the water, so that it will notdamage the banks of the river. Afterlooking at the spillway, we boarded thebus and set off back to school. A stopwas made at Warburton for fish andchips and we arrived back at school intime to attend night classes.On behalf of the 8th Form I wouldlike to thank Mr. Ritchie and Mr.Thompson for arranging this interestingexcursion.J .G.*• NEWPORT POWER STATIONOn Friday the 27th September, the7th Form paid a visit to the NewportPower Station. Transport was in the formof a private car and one car was foundto be capable of Caulfield to the ferryin less time than the ferry was capableof one bonk to the other. Maybe theferry is not ca pa b le of 90 m.p .h. Onceinside, our first lesson was that there aremore adjectives than we learnt inMatric. English. After our un spoilt mindsgrasped this, we were able to take inthe vastness of the station.We were shown the water st ra iningsystem and then on our way to the roofan inspection was mode of the processfor preparing the ash for disposal . Onthe roof an excellent view was obtainedof the yards and the conveyors whichcarry coal to the bunkers; the samebunkers were next to receive our scrutiny.After this we went on to the boilerswhich supply steam to the turbines. Betweenthe boilers and turbines wepassed through the control room whereone body was heard to exclaim "­water is dripping down my neck."On reaching the turbines we foundseveral of the turbines were in variousstages of undress undergoing overhaul.This proved most helpful to us for itprovided the multitude with their firstopportunity to study the construction ofa turbine out of textbooks.Thus the trip concluded with the descentof many fl ights of stairs and itwas a wiser group that set out for home,tired but happy.Thanks are due to Mr. Thomson whoarranged the tour and to the SEC.guides and Mr. Middleton who accompaniedus over the station.M.A.*• Division of TribophysicsC.S.I.R.O.35On Friday, 14th June, Form 8A visitedthe C.S .I.R .O. Tribophysics sectionsituated in the Un iversity grounds. Aswe a rrived early we inspected the newlyerected ultra-modern Wilson Hall andthe Beaurepaire Sports Centre. A shortintroductory talk was given by Dr. W. E.Boas, during wh ich he shattered Mr.K's theory as to the nature of friction.We were then shown around the laboratories.