South Australia’s history is brimming with fascinating stories, unsolved mysteries, and myths just waiting to be busted. Earlier this month, we wrote about the hidden underwater town of Lovely Valley beneath the Myponga Reservoir. Now we’ve caught wind of another underwater town hidden beneath a reservoir in the Adelaide Hills, so we just had to investigate. Here’s what we found.
Located in the Mount Lofty Ranges, the Millbrook Reservoir is a 16,000-megalitre water storage reservoir that was built during World War I to control water flows in the upper River Torrens and provide water to Adelaide’s eastern suburbs. The reservoir is named after the small town of Millbrook, which used to exist above the dam wall.
Millbrook was demolished during the construction of the reservoir, but the inlet was once a small, thriving community located on the main northeastern road from Adelaide to Mount Pleasant. Officially recognised as a town in 1886, Millbrook was named after a village of the same name in Cornwall, England, and home to a small population largely comprised of gardeners, woodcarvers, and poultry fanciers.
The land around Millbrook was fertile for agricultural and pastoral purposes, with a number of vineyards and fruit gardens established in the area alongside a small quantity of wheat crops. Small quantities of gold-bearing quartz was once discovered in the nearby Millbrook Creek, attracting some prospectors in the town’s early days, whose efforts were scarcely rewarded. Iron and copper was also uncovered in the area.
When the town was recognised in 1886, the population was just 37. When construction on the reservoir began nearly 30 years later in 1914, that number had swelled to 139, and a small public school had been established inside the township.
But between 1914 and 1918, the Government purchased Millbrook’s farming properties, and most residents moved on to surrounding towns like Warren, Birdwood, and Mount Pleasant.
During construction, a number of roadways had to be reconfigured to divert traffic away from Millbrook, but the old bridge near Sunning Hill was left intact when its removal was deemed an unnecessary expense. That bridge became visible again in 1955 during a severe draught that dropped the reservoir’s water level to a record low.
By mid-1918, the last of Millbrook’s buildings, including a general store, police station, and the Millbrook Hotel, had all been demolished. The entire inlet was cleared of fencing, fruit trees, and undergrowth before the official opening on July 5th, though work on the reservoir wasn’t actually completed until December that year.
When construction was all said and done, the Hon. J. G. Bice, who was serving as Commissioner of Public Works at the time, directed the flow of water from the weir through the inlet tunnel to the reservoir. Reports indicate that a group of former residents gathered to witness the water rising over their old town.
In the 1970s, a nearby town called Chain of Ponds, located between Inglewood and Gumeracha along the Adelaide-Mannum Road, was also demolished to prevent water pollution in the Millbrook Reservoir. First settled in the early 1840s, Chain of Ponds was established by the South Australian Company, and included a church, two post offices, a service station, several cottages and the historic Morning Star Hotel.
The town became the namesake of Chain of Ponds Wines, a winery established in 1985 just outside Gumeracha, about 4km from where Chain of Ponds once stood.
In our story about Lovely Valley, we wrote that some people have shared stories of how, when water levels were low, the top of a church steeple or the cross on top of its tower could sometimes appear above the surface.
A similar myth has circulated about the underwater town of Millbrook, but a news piece published in 1929 confirms that the last of the buildings in the township were demolished in 1918.
Thus, there are no buildings left standing beneath the Millbrook reservoir, other than a bridge, water tower, and the foundations of a few houses. When the water level is low, the bridge may still be seen, though in a ruinous state.
The Millbrook Reservoir now feeds back into the Torrens, boosting the supply of water flowing into the Kangaroo Creek Reservoir.
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