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Urban water cycle
The Melbourne water cycle shows you what happens to water when it’s taken out of nature and into our homes. Scroll up and down to learn about where water goes once it leaves your home.
Treatment plant game
Explore the urban water cycle and help Whoosh get the water to homes, then cleaned and out to the ocean. How quick can you play this game?
Melbourne’s urban water cycle begins with the catchment of rainfall in the Thomson Reservoir.
It is stored in that Reservoir for about five years. From there it flows to the Upper Yarra Reservoir and is stored for another 12 months. The journey then continues to either the Silvan or Cardinia Reservoirs. When the water leaves these reservoirs it is disinfected and then it is piped to local storage tanks and then finally transferred into our homes.
Learn more about how drinking water is collected and transported by downloading the factsheet.
Victorian Curriculum
Years 3 - 4: Geography VCGGK082
Years 5 - 6: Geography VCGGK096
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