GOD and Dight's Falls

1st February 1998.

These two tunnels are on the bank of a creek, within 10 meters of each other.

GOD (Great Oversised Drain) Rating:

This drain is close to Bangers and other Northcote drains

GOD is one of the better drains in UA City in terms of things to see, with a radical waterfall and great entrance! Yet it is hard to explore, being slippery and having nasty low bits. Dights Falls forms a diversion drain to GOD with connections between the two drains. This is a large tunnel with fairly easy access but is not really suited to beginners. The area immediately above the falls is slippery explorers have to be careful they don't fall over. We wear shoes with good grip! As I have mentioned many times, you should never go into drains, and certinly never into ones with waterfalls!

Drain Report

1. Entrance to GOD. The entrance is between the road under a freeway above and a creek. Crawling down the rocks and then a ladder on the side of the portal brings us to the drain entrance. The entrance is great! A huge 3 meter RCP climbs up into the earth under the freeway. The sound of the waterfall can be heard clearly. On the left side of the tunnel a graffiti notice warns "Wimps turn back here" with a demarcation arrow. Walking on in we soon came to a series of steps on the bottom of the tunnel floor, it's easiest just to walk straight up the center of the drain. It's only a short walk to the waterfall.

2. The waterfall. This is one of the highest and most well know waterfalls in UA City's drain system. It's similar to the one in Maze. The waterfall is about 4.5 meters high but there's a ladder on it's right hand side. The top of the ladder gets a bit shaky, we pulled down on the chain, this took up the slack and steadied the ladder. We had to be careful about our footing at the top of the ladder. It's not often slippery there, but the sooner we were in the RCP at the top, the safer we felt.

1998. On our most recent trip to GOD it was noticed that some of the bolts on this ladder are coming out.

3. The tunnel. Upstream from the waterfall the tunnel changes shape a few times, first into an unusually bowl shaped tunnel with a bluestone bottom then a concreted over bluestone tunnel. GOD has some of the best bluestone sections of any drain in UA City. Keep a look out up here for the kind of hole in the roof. This appears to be an old service section with heaps of sandbags visible up there. At one time there were a number of grilles located in the ceiling of this section of the drain but due to roadworks above for the freeway these were removed.

The tunnel eventually changes into an all concrete drain with a semi-channeled bottom similar to the open sections of Maze. At this point the walking gets a lot easier if you walk along the edges of the drain.

There are some interesting things to see along here, such as some low power wires along the left hand side of the tunnel, a set of power cords dangling into the drain, a few big pipes crossing the drain and more. Keep a look out for the big plastic pipe crossing the drain with it's small side alcove. Also keep a look out for graffiti on the left that says 'fix our f&*^%ing drain!'. At this point a huge bulldozer cracked the roof of the drain and fell into it. This resulted in the drain being opened to the air for a while as it was awaiting repairs.

4. North Drain. This is a small drain on the northern side of the main drain that heads into northern inner city suburbs. Nothing exciting.

5. Exits. The exits to this tunnel are located on the right hand side of the drain. Both are grilled manhole type exits, more like gutterboxes. The first one is a small rectangular hole which exits into a gutterbox with step irons, it's a bit of a squeese. The second one is a bigger round exit but the gutterbox has no step irons. They exit right into the reserve in the middle of a main road. Of course now they are bolted closed. It used to be quite amusing to see the expressions on the faces of drivers as you pop out of this drain in the middle of one of the very busiest streets in UA City. One might consider exploring further along this great tunnel before exiting. The square manholes are stuck in concrete at the top of the ladder so there's no point using them.

6. The northern turn. A short way past the exits the tunnel changes into a very pleasant almost flat bottomed red brick tunnel with straight sides and a flat roof. The tunnel soon turns in a fairly sharp corner to head north up under a street. There are quite a few manholes along here which can light up the drain, particularly during the day. These are all heavy Gatic types and located on the road above. The air here can smell quite bad but there are plenty of small side drains which ventilate the tunnel well. There are also a number of navigable side RBT side drains on the left side of the tunnel near the floor but none of them look like they go anywhere.

7. New concrete sections. Up past the curve you will come across the first of several new sections of concrete tunnel. These are of the same shape as the RBT but are remarkably white compared to the red of the old tunnel. They are the ideal place to leave a message.

8. Curve. There are a few curves in this tunnel. The first of these is nothing special. Where the tunnel curves north again a RCP side tunnel leaves the main one, it was only small though. Heading north again the tunnel reaches a point where the roof drops, requiring some stoop. There are quite a number of messages here, some elude to an entrance further ahead as some people seem to have entered the tunnel from it's upper end.

9. Lower section. At the curve where the tunnel turns west again there is a short section of really low tunnel. Rumor has it that this is where Banger's crosses GOD but I can't confirm that. From here the tunnel runs due west for a fair bit (it feels longer than shown on the map). There are a few unopenable manholes here to rest in. There are two small side pipes in this section of the drain but neither of them lead to exits.

10. Split. eventually you will reach this split. Ahead of you a red brick pipe about 1.6 meters high continues westwards. To the right the tunnel curves around to the north. Just at the split light can be seen pouring from a small opening. This opening leads into a manhole right in the middle of busy Lygon St.

Emor and I did not explore the northern tunnel as it was particularly smelly and full of mud and debris. We explored the much cleaner western RBT. This tunnel requires a bit of stoop to explore. It is however well lit by a series of round grid type manholes, all of which are located in the center of the southern lanes of a busy road and should not be opened.

We checked all of the small side crawl tunnels here and discovered that the one located at the 3rd manhole is just excitable. Exiting here requires a bit of teamwork and skill. It will also involve getting wet as two people will have to squeese into this tiny gutterbox, up to their knees in water to heave the heavy grille out of the way. As this grille is located on the side of a road it is a bit risky, and perhaps you would prefer to enter here rather than exit.

Dight's Falls

This tunnel is located right near GOD, just ten or so meters down stream, it is not shown on the map. It's circular and about 1.8 meters in diameter. In some places it runs right under GOD. You may need to stoop to explore it. There are some unnavigable cross connections between the two tunnels.

I have wandered down it, but to be truthful, it pales in comparison to GOD.

Do NOT enter drains. Read this warning!

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