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The Funnel Skaters know it as "The pothole", the Cave clan call it "The funnel". This is the biggest round concrete pipe in Australia. ~1/1/05 Feeling like both my head and stomach had developed a serious grudge against me, i almost didn't make it to the rendezvous point in time to join a dozen of the Cave clan's finest explorers to embark on this journey to the Mecca of Australian tunnels. With explorers like Dsankt, Silogen, Mr India, Diode, and Nivelo joining us, there was no way I was going to let them have all the fun while I stayed at home and nursed the mother of all hangovers. Biting the bullet we set out from Sydney in a convoy of 4 wheel drives and other miscellaneous vehicles driving throughout the night, making only the mandatory stops to stock up on Red bull and Big Macs. By morning we were less than 100 klicks away from our destination, but it would be almost 4 hours of bush bashing along fire tracks and cliff hugging access paths before we could finally get to work setting up base camp in the 40+ degree heat of the midday sun. After a brief siesta we gathered our abseiling gear and made our way up the hill for our first face to face meeting with the attraction that had drawn us from all over the country. It may be difficult to guage the massive scale of this structure at first. But if you take a close look at the inside right hand edge of the funnel, you'll see a rather small dot attached to a string. That little dot is Drac of the Sydney Cave Clan abseiling into the 32 meter (105 feet) wide mouth of this enormous beast. Below her is an almost 100 meter, near vertical, drop to the base of the tunnel. Not surprisingly, this place wasn't designed just so crazy urban explorers could abseil it. Its real purpose is to act as an overflow for the 20,000 Megalitre dam in which it resides. When snow from the surrounding mountains suddenly starts to melt in the spring, water levels in the dam can rapidly increase. Should this happen faster than the dam outlet and regulating valves can handle, water will fall over the lip of the funnel and race in to the tunnel below. Inside at the base of the funnel we found ourselves standing in a 29ft wide, 480ft long round concrete tunnel of the drain gods. Fortunately on this day they were smiling on us. The dam above didn't overflow, and we weren't washed the entire length of the tunnel only to have our lifeless bodies launched across the neighbouring valley. With temperatures outside in excess of 40 degrees, the tunnels natural airflow and insulation provide a welcome relief from the heat. A small trickle of water seeps in through the seams of the massive cement sections and a distinctly wet drain smell fills the air. Sound in the tunnel carries quite some distance, but voices are distorted and incomprehensible after 20 or so meters. Drawn by nothing other than its existence, you're compelled to take a walk to the other end. It's hard to visit a place like this without stopping to consider the mammoth task that the builders must have faced. To undertake a project of this nature, out here in such a remote and extreme location, would have taken a team of people the likes of which would be rarely found in this day and age. Construction of this tunnel and the associated dam took place between 1961 and 1966. The project was so large and remote that two towns were built solely for the purpose of housing the workers and their families. Entirely new roads were built to provide access to the area, and materials were trucked in from as far away as Sydney and Melbourne. These days only the roads remain, the towns having since been stripped down and the area gutted by bushfires. The location of this amazing feat of engineering is a closely guarded secret to those who have skated and explored it. This is kind of a holy grail for those who are passionate about experiencing such awesome locations. So it is understandable that they want to protect and preserve access to it, both for themselves and those dedicated enough who follow them. If you are one of the fortunate few who know where it is, please respect this site so it can continue to be appreciated by skaters and explorers alike for years to come. Tweet

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UrbanTwilight...
UrbanTwilight is photographing the underground tunnels, abandoned buildings, rooftops, and hidden industry that most people would never normally get to see. The images contained on this site have been shot in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart, and countless country locations inbetween. Nearly all have been taken in low to very-low lighting conditions, and most on Canon digital equipment.

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The Julia Farr Home for Incurables

After sitting vacant for more than 30 years, the Julia Farr Hospital's 'Home for Incurables' has finally been demolished. Urbantwilight hid a camera on the roof of a neighbouring bulding and filmed the 4 week demolition process. Checkout the timelapse video.

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14/02/13
UrbanTwilight turns 10 this year so I've finally made some time between the tunnels and abandoned buildings (and my day job) to make a few improvements around the place. The images are bigger, the old ones have been colour corrected, and a handful have been given the flick. Most importantly there's a whole new section called 'Archives' - You should check it out from time to time, you never know what you might find.

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The Funnel

An expedition report of sorts, this has been hiding on Urbantwilight for years. 'The Funnel', 'The Pothole', 'Skate or die'. Whatever you choose to call it, this place is awe-inspiring.

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Approach.doc
If you think this shit is cool and you plan on becoming the next K-rad-elite drain explorer, then you need to read this. It could save your life.

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If you like UT, check out these guys...

Urbex.org (nivelo)

Sleepycity (dsankt)

Urban Glow (silogen)

The Cave Clan

Forbidden places (slyv)

Adventure Worldwide (snapple)

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Thanks To:
Drac, Dsankt, Nivelo, Rogue, Guru, Pizzy, Curly, xm, Jade, Liao, Lanor, Scarecrow, Trainman & The Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney Cave Clan.

Without their support and assistance many of these photos would not have been possible.

- Wizard.

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