The National Sewerage Program was an Australian federal program under the Whitlam and Fraser governments^[2] established to provide funding for the expansion of municipal sewerage systems.^[3] At the time Australia was lagging behind other developed nations^[4][5] and, as of the commencement of the program in 1972, 17.2% of the Australian population were not connected to sewerage.^[6] Even in major population centers like Sydney and Melbourne, there was a backlog of over 318,000 homes waiting to be connected to municipal sewerage systems.^[7] The program was administered by the newly formed Department of Urban and Regional Development, and over AUD$330 million of funding was allocated to be distributed to individual states and territories over ten years.^[8][6] Over the life of the program the sewerage connection backlog was reduced by 30% to 40%.^[7] The program was abolished in 1977 by the incumbent Fraser government.^[9][10] Consequently, many communities struggled to connect to sewerage for decades afterwards.^[11]