The pipeline continues to operate today, supplying water to over 100,000 people in over 33,000 households as well as mines, farms and other enterprises.
Water scarcity
During the early 1890s, thousands of settlers had travelled into the barren and dry desert centre of Western Australia seeking gold, but the existing infrastructure for the supply of water was non-existent, and an urgent need arose.
Prior to the scheme, water condensers,[1] irregular rain, and water trains[2] were part of the range of sources. Railway dams were essential for water to supply locomotives to travel to the goldfields.[3]
Origins of the scheme
Throughout the 1890s, water availability issues in Coolgardie and in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder region were causing concern. On 16 July 1896, the Premier of Western Australia, Sir John Forrest introduced to Western Australian Parliament a bill to authorise the raising of a loan of £2.5 million to construct the scheme: the pipeline would convey 23,000 kilolitres (5,100,000impgal) of water per day to the Goldfields from a dam on the Helena River near Mundaring in Perth.[4][5]
The scheme consisted of three key elements – the Mundaring Weir, which dammed the Helena River in the Darling Scarp creating the Helena River Reservoir; a 760 millimetres (30in) diameter steel pipe which ran from the dam to Kalgoorlie 530 kilometres (330mi) away; and a series of eight pumping stations and two small holding dams to control pressures and to lift the water over the Darling Scarp.
The scheme was devised by C. Y. O'Connor who oversaw its design and most of the construction project. Although supported by Premier Forrest, O'Connor had to deal with widespread criticism and derision from members of the Western Australian Parliament as well as the local press based on a belief that the scope of the engineering task was too great and that it would never work.[6]
There was also a concern that the gold deposits would soon be depleted, and the state would have a significant debt to repay but little or no commerce to support it.
Sunday Times editor Frederick Vosper – who was also a politician, ran a personal attack on O'Connor's integrity and ability through the paper. Timing was critical, Forrest as a supporter had moved into Federal politics,[7] and the new Premier George Leake had long been an opponent of the scheme.[8]
O'Connor died by suicide in March 1902 less than 12 months before the final commissioning of the pipeline.[9]
Lady Forrest officially started the pumping machinery at Pumping Station Number One (Mundaring) on 22 January,[10] and on 24 January 1903 water flowed into the Mount Charlotte Reservoir at Kalgoorlie.[11][12] O'Connor's engineer-in-chief, C. S. R. Palmer took over the project after his death, seeing it through to its successful completion.[13][14]
The government conducted an inquiry into the scheme[15][16] and found no basis for the press accusations of corruption or misdemeanours on the part of O'Connor.
Pipeline
A section of the pipeline
The pipes were manufactured locally from flat steel sheets imported from Germany and the United States. Mephan Ferguson was awarded the first manufacturing contract and built a fabrication plant at Falkirk (now known as the Perth suburb of Maylands) to produce half of the 60,000 pipes required.[17]C & G Hoskins established a factory near Midland Junction (now known simply as Midland) to produce the other half.[18][19]
When built, the pipeline was the longest fresh-water pipeline in the world.[20]
The pipeline ran alongside the earlier route of the Eastern Railway and the Eastern Goldfields Railways for parts of its route, so that the railway service and the pipeline had an interdependence through the sparsely populated region between Southern Cross and Kalgoorlie.
The scheme required significant infrastructure in power generation to support the pumping stations. Communities oriented to the maintenance of the pipeline and pumping stations grew up along the route. With improved power supplies and modern machinery and automation, the scheme now has more unattended pumping stations operated by fewer people.
The Public Works Department originally constructed and ran the railway from the Mundaring railway station for the purpose of delivering materials to the construction site.[23]
The Western Australian Government Railways took over the railway operation. It ceased operation in 1952, and the connecting railway line at Mundaring closed in 1954.[24]
Design challenges
The sudden Darling Range height rise between Mundaring and Northam required the location of Pumping Station number two to be close to number one.
The Avon River in Northam required the construction of the Poole Street Bridge after failure of river bed pipes in 1917.
The distance was compounded by the height the water had to be lifted. To rise the almost 400 metres (1,300ft) in altitude, issues with friction meant that a head of 800 metres (2,600ft) had to be achieved. O'Connor had eight pumping stations that each pumped the water to the next of the receiving tanks in his plans.
Leakages were noted early;[25] by the early 1930s, 1,700,000 kilolitres (370,000,000impgal) of water per year – a quarter of the total volume of water being pumped from Mundaring Weir – was leaking from the pipeline.
Pumping stations
Original pumping station at Mundaring Weir.
With most of the original stations being steam-driven, a ready supply of timber was needed to fire the boilers. Hence the pipeline route was closely aligned with the Eastern Railway. To enhance the reliability of the system, each pumping station was designed and constructed with a spare pumping unit. Due to pressure requirements related to the slope of the pipeline, stations one to four required two pumping units to be in operation. Stations five to eight only required one operating pump, due to a lower rise in height between those stations.
James Simpson and Co[26] supplied 3,500 tonnes of equipment in 5,000 separate boxes for the construction of the pumping sets.[27]
Original pumping stations
All the original pumping stations were powered by steam.[28][29]
Branch mains, or extensions, were started as early as 1907.
Water from the pipeline was utilised for a number of country towns adjacent to its route, and also into the Great Southern region. The Public Works Department started this project in the 1950s following the raising of the weir wall in the early 1950s and it completed this work in 1961.
Centenary
The scheme was "interpreted" by the National Trust of Western Australia in its Golden Pipeline Project, which created guide books, web sites, and tourist trails along the scheme pipeline and tracing the older power station locations and communities that serviced the scheme. The Trust achieved the responsibility in an agreement with the Water Corporation in 1998. Most of the material was developed between 2001 and 2003.
Recent histories
In 2007 two items were produced that were overviews of the scheme:
Pipe Dreams
The history of the construction of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme was detailed in the 2007 documentary Pipe Dreams,[34] which was part of the ABC series Constructing Australia.[35]
Lower Helena Pipehead Dam is now also used to supply water to the Goldfields region. Water from the dam is currently pumped back into Mundaring Weir.[39][40]
↑ Gunzburg, Adrian; Austin, Jeff; Rail Heritage WA; Gunzburg, Adrian; Austin, Jeff (2008), Rails through the bush: timber and firewood tramways and railway contractors of Western Australia (2nded.), Rail Heritage WA, ISBN978-0-9803922-2-7
↑ Taylor, William (American government official) (1 September 2003), "No. 1 pump station: installations within the first pump station on Western Australia's golden pipeline treats the existing building as the ground for interpreting the history of the goldfields water scheme", Architecture Australia, 92 (5): 88(3), ISSN0003-8725
↑ Stitson, Roger (2007). "Pipe Dreams"(PDF). Constructing Australia–Teachers notes. Film Australia. Archived from the original(PDF) on 10 April 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
↑ Evans, Richard W; West, Alex; Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Film Australia (2007), Constructing Australia, Melbourne University Publishing, ISBN978-0-522-85402-2
↑ Hartley, Richard G (2007), River of steel: a history of the Western Australian Goldfields and Agricultural Water Supply 1895-2003, Access Press, ISBN978-0-86445-196-5
↑ Oliver, Bobbie (1 November 2008), "Richard G. Hartley, River of Steel: A History of the Western Australian Goldfields and Agricultural Water Supply.(Book review)", Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History (95), Australian Society for the Study of Labour History: 263(3), ISSN0023-6942
Charles Yelverton O'Connor,, was an Irish engineer who is best known for his work in Western Australia, especially the construction of Fremantle Harbour, thought to be impossible, and the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme.
Southern Cross is a town in Western Australia, 371 kilometres east of state capital Perth on the Great Eastern Highway. It was founded in 1888 after gold prospectors Richard Greaves and Ted Paine during their October 1887 expedition successfully found gold, and gazetted in 1890. It is the major town and administrative centre of the Shire of Yilgarn. At the 2016 census, Southern Cross had a population of 680.
Great Eastern Highway is a 590-kilometre-long (370 mi) road that links the Western Australian capital of Perth with the city of Kalgoorlie. A key route for road vehicles accessing the eastern Wheatbelt and the Goldfields, it is the western portion of the main road link between Perth and the eastern states of Australia. The highway forms the majority of National Highway 94, although the alignment through the Perth suburbs of Guildford and Midland, and the eastern section between Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie are not included. Various segments form parts of other road routes, including National Route 1, Alternative National Route 94, and State Route 51.
Merredin is a town in Western Australia, located in the central Wheatbelt roughly midway between Perth and Kalgoorlie, on Route 94, Great Eastern Highway. It is located on the route of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, and as a result is also on the Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail.
The Helena River is a tributary of the Swan River in Western Australia. The river rises in country east of Mount Dale and flows north-west to Mundaring Weir, where it is dammed. It then flows west until it reaches the Darling Scarp.
Bullabulling is a small townsite located 526 km (327 mi) east of Perth, Western Australia on the Great Eastern Highway in the Goldfields-Esperance region.
The Eastern Goldfields Railway, was built in the 1890s by the Western Australian Government Railways to connect Perth with the Eastern Goldfields at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie.
The Mundaring Weir branch railway was constructed from Mundaring, Western Australia to the site of the Mundaring Weir, and opened on 1 June 1898.
Mundaring Weir is a concrete gravity dam located 39 kilometres (24 mi) from Perth, Western Australia in the Darling Scarp. The dam and reservoir form the boundary between the suburbs of Reservoir and Sawyers Valley. The dam impounds the Helena River.
Mundaring Weir Road is a road in the outer eastern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia that links Mundaring and Kalamunda.
Kalgoorlie railway station is the easternmost attended station in Western Australia, located at the eastern terminus of the Eastern Goldfields Railway. It serves the city of Kalgoorlie. Beyond Kalgoorlie, the line continues east as the Trans-Australian Railway.
The Esperance branch railway is a railway from Kalgoorlie to the port of Esperance in Western Australia.
The Kep Track is a bicycle, walking and horse track in the Darling Range and further east in Western Australia.
Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail was a project conducted by the National Trust of Western Australia along the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme pipeline at the time the pipeline was being celebrated for its 100 years of operation.
Railway dams and reservoirs were used to supply water to an extensive railway system that ventured into low rainfall, and poor water quality areas of the inner regions of Western Australia in the 1890s.
Western Australian Government Railways railway system during its peak operational time in the 1930s to 1950s was a large system of over 6,400 kilometres (4,000 mi) of railway line.
Tourist Drives in Western Australia are routes through areas of scenic or historic significance, designated by route markers with white numbers on a brown shield. Tourist Drives were introduced into Western Australia while Eric Charlton was the state government Minister for Transport in the 1990s. The 28 numbered routes collectively traverse more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) across the state. In addition to the Tourist Drives, there are unnumbered routes such as the Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail, and local governments may designate and maintain local scenic drives, generally unnamed and unnumbered.
Yerbillon, Western Australia was the location of Number 5 Pumping station on the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, and is the location of the current pumping station number 11 on the pipeline.
Arthur Wilbraham Dillon Bell was an engineer active in New Zealand and Western Australia. Bell was a son of Francis Dillon Bell; his father was at the time of his birth a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives. His elder brother, Francis Bell, would later be Prime Minister of New Zealand. Bell received his secondary schooling in New Zealand and after a time in journalism and as a public servant, he went to England to train as an engineer. After a short period of engineering work in England, he returned to New Zealand in 1879, and in 1891 he went to Western Australia. He retired young in 1907 and returned to live in New Zealand. In 1917, the Bells moved to Melbourne to be with their daughter's family.
Dedari, Western Australia was the location of Number 8 Pumping station on the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme
References
Note – the material on the scheme is in its entirety a significant collection, and although the Water Authority might hold a comprehensive bibliography, it has not been published.
Primary sources
Articles in The Golden Age relating to the water supply at Coolgardie 1894–1898. J S Battye Library
Coolgardie Goldfields Water Supply: a new method of dealing with granite rocks.1894. West Australian, 10 Feb 1894.
The Agricultural areas, Great Southern towns and Goldfields water supply scheme: constructed by the Public Works Department, Western Australia, completed November 1961: form of proceedings at the function to commemorate the completion of the project, held at Mundaring Weir, on 24 November 1961 [Perth, W.A.]: Govt. Printer, 1961.
Secondary sources
Hartley, Richard G. (2007) River of steel: a history of the Western Australian Goldfields and Agricultural Water Supply 1895–2003 Bassendean, W.A.: Access Press. ISBN978-0-86445-196-5 (pbk.)
National Trust of Western Australia (2002). The golden pipeline heritage trail guide: a time capsule of water, gold and Western Australia. West Perth, W.A.: The Trust. ISBN1-876507-25-X.
Pamphlets
The Politics of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, The Golden Pipeline Information Sheet Number 1. National Trust of Australia (Western Australia) No Date.
Further reading
Le Page, J. S. H. (1986) Building a state: the story of the Public Works Department of Western Australia 1829–1985 Leederville,W.A: Water Authority of Western Australia. ISBN0-7244-6862-5
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