For various work related reason we�d all three of us and even Josh had been out to Fyshwick but never out to Queanbeyan. On a whim we decided to head down to the town. You probably won�t believe this, but we had never been to Queanbeyan before. We�d just got our wheels recently and it was a relatively long and expensive bus trip out to the place. In fact, for the price of a one way, non return trip to Queanbeyan we could ride a bus all day in Urbana. Plus the busses were very dodgy and the service sucked compared to the nice bus drivers in Urbana.

Queanbeyan was like culture shock. A real town, with a real shopping center, and real corner stores and a real atmosphere. Oh what we had been missing out on.

We parked the car near the bridge over the river. We could not remember the directions to the drain. So we just walked down the ramp to the river bank and walked south. Some one had written something like �Fred�s home 30 metres� on the pavement. We figured maybe this could be the drain so we walked along the river�s edge. We could see a diversion of the footpath ahead. About 50 metres from the sign introducing us to Fred�s home was the drain.

Corrugated concrete and flood baffles greeted us, unlike any other Urbana drain we had seen. The entrance was huge too. First drain we had ever seen with a 9 foot entrance out in the open.

We slid down the bank to the edge of the river. We thought the water might be shallow but it�s real deep. We noticed a couple of Franklin�s shopping trolleys in the water. Enjoying the river scene we walked up to the entrance of the drain. We could already see some feature inside the drain, a waterfall of some sort.

Inside the drain we contemplated a 4 or 5 foot waterfall. Oh yeah that was going to be messy to climb. We could do it but it would get us wet and yucky. A way to the top had to be sought. Fortunately some kind and considerate drain explorer had done this for us already. An upside down shopping trolley served as a perfect stepping stone to the top of the small waterfall. We rolled a big rock into the base of it to keep it steady then climbed up. Sure beat getting wet.

This drain was a lot different from Urbana ones. For starters there was the brick section in the waterfall. Then there was the graffiti. Some Urbana drains have no graffiti in them at all. Some have a little, just at the entrances, or just a the grille rooms. This one had graffiti all the way along it. Tags, tags and more tags. We spotted some from wu-tang and 2-Pak. We figured maybe they were like graff artists who also explored drains. There were few real pieces, mostly mono-colour tags.

As you can see in he picture above, the entrance was of course littered with graffiti.

We really did not know what to expect from this drain. We had read some stuff about it but as we visited the area on a whim we had forgotten anything we had read except for a vague description of where it was. We walked on up the drain. There was plenty of graffiti in this drain. Unlike Urbana drains this one had a fair bit of graffiti all the way through it. The first hundred metres had piles of tags and small pieces. Almost every pipe section had something on it. It was only after about ten minutes walk that the walks began to clear.

The drain didn�t have many features. We kept expecting to see something, anything. Apart from a whimpy little waterfall there was stuff all. The tunnel size did shrink a bit, there was a few crawlable side pipes but that wasn�t all that exciting. We were kind of glad when we got to the end of the drain. We rounded a corner to see light ahead. Wahoo, at last something exciting to see.

The exit was right near the showgrounds, on the main drag, near the council depot. In a small barb wire fence enclosed strip of ground the drain meandered upstream as a creek for about a hundred metres. It ended in another pair of drains. A crappy small stone drain, and a half filled six foot round pipe. We had fun squeezing through the narrow gap in the fence. The wire in the fence has a bad habit of projecting out in such a fashion as to try give you an anal probe as you squeeze through. Make sure you have a friend to hold the wire back. If you�re fat you�ll probably have to walk back down the drain, the gap�s narrow.

The most interesting thing about this drain is the selection of tools found in the big pit pictured above. Including a couple of broken screw drivers in a hammer, chisel and crowbar.

In all sincerity exploring drains is dangerous and somewhat boring after you have done a few of them. We do not wish to encourage you to explore them. Please keep out of drains. You can see all you want on the Internet anyway.

Do NOT enter drains. Read this warning!

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