The Lincoln Street Ventilation Stack, Perth, Guide du visiteur et quoi faire à proximité

The Lincoln Street Ventilation Stack is a tall, slender sewer vent in the Perth suburb of Highgate, Western Australia. Built in 1935 to release gases from the city's sewer network, it is now a heritage-listed landmark and one of the most unusual skyline features in the area, known to locals by a rather blunt nickname.

The story behind it

The stack was built in 1935 by the Metropolitan Water Supply, Sewerage and Drainage Department. Its job was to vent gas from Perth's growing sewer system safely into the air above the streets. The idea was sound, but by most accounts the vent did not work as well as hoped, and neighbours got a whiff of what it was meant to carry away. That reputation is the reason for the affectionate local nickname, the Shit Stack.

Today the smell is long gone, and the structure is valued as a rare surviving piece of Perth's early sanitation engineering. It is protected on the State Register of Heritage Places, which says a lot about how a purely practical object can become part of a neighbourhood's identity.

What to look for

• The sheer height of the shaft, which rises well above the surrounding houses and makes it easy to spot from several streets away.
• The plain, functional design, with no decoration, a good example of 1930s utility engineering built for a job rather than for show.
• The contrast between the stack and the ordinary residential streets around it, which shows how infrastructure once sat right among people's homes.
• The view of the stack from different angles as you walk around the block, since its slim profile looks different from each side.

Tips for your visit

• Plan on about ten minutes. It is a landmark to see from the street, so it works best as one stop on a longer walk through Highgate.
• It is a piece of infrastructure rather than a visitor attraction, so you will not be able to go inside. Admire it from the footpath and respect the neighbours.
• Morning or late afternoon light is kinder for photos, and a wide shot from a little way back shows the full height best.
• Highgate is close to central Perth and easy to reach on foot, so you can combine the stack with other nearby sights. Check current conditions before you set out.

See it on a quest

The stack is one stop on Shadows Over Perth: The Wizard’s Trail, a self-guided walk with a mystery theme. You reach the landmark on foot as part of a longer route through the area, the app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle based on what is in front of you. It is a paid quest, and one ticket covers the whole group. You can start whenever you like, with no guide and no set departure time.