Water cask from a European settlement at Sullivan Bay, Sorrento, 1803. State Library Victoria Pictures Collection.

In pursuit of fresh water, Victoria’s first European settlers had little choice but to get crafty with this barrel.

They fashioned a filter system using sand, grass and sticks inside the wall of the cask to try and purify seawater – the only resource available to them at Sullivan Bay, where they had landed. The contraption failed and soon after the site was abandoned.