Sewage Pumping Station 38, Sewerage pumping station in Mascot, Australia

Sewage Pumping Station 38 is a low-level pumping station on General Holmes Drive, Mascot, built of well-burnt brown brick in Federation Free Style. A circular concrete substructure sits within the single-storey building, which has a slate gambrel roof with terracotta hip and ridge cappings, two timber louvered gambrel vents, and a steel roller shutter door beneath a sandstone lintel inscribed "MWS & DB 1915".

SPS 38 was the first pumping station built for SWOOS No.1, the ocean outfall sewer commissioned in 1919 that replaced the Botany-Rockdale Sewage Farm after a 1905–1908 parliamentary inquiry. The Public Works Department built the outfall; the Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board designed and built the station to serve the low-lying Cooks River Estuary and Ascot Racecourse. It was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 18 November 1999.

The station's name appears in several forms: SPS 38, Mascot Sewage Pumping Station and SP0038. Its sandstone lintel carries the inscription "MWS & DB 1915", naming the Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board that designed and built it. The building stands beside an inspection hall and substation of similar appearance, and the group is a landmark seen from General Holmes Drive.

The station is located on General Holmes Drive and continues to operate under Sydney Water management. Visitors should view it from outside since it remains an active industrial facility with ongoing operations.

The ceiling features a centered ventilation grille and tongue and groove boarding, showing construction methods from the Federation period that builders applied with care throughout the structure. Such details are rarely visible to passersby but reveal attention to craftsmanship even in hidden spaces.