File:MCL-Swan-St-vent-shaft.jpg

English: This was taken at the base of a ventilation shaft, with the open top just out of sight. The shaft is in Melbourne, on the south side of Swan Street (Olympic Parade) just west of Gosch's Paddock. It's about half-way along the Burnley tunnel on the CityLink freeway. When this photo was taken (mid 1997), the shaft was 65 metres deep and 10 metres diameter. At the time, the shaft was being used for the construction of the Burnley tunnel instead of permanent ventilation. The two big steel circular ducts running down the sides were temporary ventilation ducts to extract foul air from the headings east and west of the shaft, and there was a crane that raised & lowered a birdcage for the tunnellers (the birdcage isn't shown, but its cable is just visible mid-field).Once the tunnelling was completed, the shaft was fitted out with the following: a 250 mm thick secondary lining to stop the weeping water; a staircase; steelwork to support a pair of fans used for air supply/smoke extract; and an Alimak hoist down to road level. If you go to the site today, all you'll see is a grey one-storey building with an external steel frame and an octagonal ventilation intake/outlet on the roof. The location of the shaft is marked on the Melways map as an escape route from the Burnley tunnel.