Date: 7th of September 2024
Rating: ★★★★★
Big Ear's tomb is perhaps one of the best drains in melbourne, it always makes for a fun trip.
Entrance: 1m
Materials: Concrete
Shapes: Round, Box
This drain has a section where one drains runs perpendicular to the main drain, and there is a section with a ladder where you can hop between the two. There is a bunch of old electronics stuck to the wall so we have started calling it the mainframe. This spot always makes for some 10/10 group photos.
On either side of the mainframe there are two 1.4m pipes that go each direction. Downstream leads to the old junction room and upstream just shrinks.
The greenroom had some of the most lush plants ive ever seen in a drain before. Sadly the bed of plant is no longer here, it must have been taken by a storm.
To get to the frootloops grille you can take the right split under the mainframe or you can take the right split upstream split from the old junction room. Either way there will be a fair amount of stoop required. Going from under the mainframe, there is a road underpass that is really low for about 15 metres, but it is well worth it.
The frootloops grille room has this strange dam it in redirecting the water from going into the newer half of Big ears. If you continue going further upstream from the grille room it shrinks a bit and there is a manhole in a carpark.
The downstream section of big ears from the old junction is long and rather boring. There are a few little grilles, some you might be able to exit from. this way has you exit at a tiny jetty along the beach, at high tide the water can be upto your neck.