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.
During the early 1890s, thousands of settlers had travelled into the barren and drydesert 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, andwater trains[2] were part of the range of sources. Railway dams were essential for water to supply locomotives to travel to the goldfields.[3]
Throughout the 1890s, water availability issues in Coolgardie and in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder region were causing concern. On 16 July 1896, thePremier of Western Australia,John Forrest introduced toWestern Australian Parliament abill to authorise the raising of a loan of£2.5million, equivalent toA$448.7million in 2022, to construct the scheme: the pipeline would convey 23,000 kilolitres (6.1 million US gallons) of water per day to the Goldfields from a dam on theHelena River nearMundaring in Perth.[4][5]
The scheme consisted of three key elements – the Mundaring Weir, which dammed theHelena River in theDarling Scarp creating the Helena River Reservoir; a 760-millimetre (30 in) diametersteel pipe which ran from the dam to Kalgoorlie 530 kilometres (330 mi) 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 byC. 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 editorFrederick 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 PremierGeorge 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 atPumping Station Number One (Mundaring) on 22 January,[10] and on 24 January 1903 water flowed into theMount 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.
The pipes were manufactured locally from flat steel sheets imported from Germany[contradictory] 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 ofMaylands) to produce half of the 60,000 pipes required.[17]C & G Hoskins established a factory near Midland Junction (now known simply asMidland) 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 theEastern Railway and theEastern 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.
ThePublic Works Department originally constructed and ran therailway from theMundaring railway station for the purpose of delivering materials to the construction site.[23]
TheWestern Australian Government Railways took over the railway operation. It ceased operation in 1952, and the connecting railway line at Mundaring closed in 1954.[24]
The sudden Darling Range height rise between Mundaring and Northam required the location of Pumping Station number two to be close to number one.
TheAvon 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 (1,300 ft) in altitude, issues with friction meant that ahead of 800 metres (2,600 ft) 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, 1.7 gigalitres (450 million US gallons) of water per year – a quarter of the total volume of water being pumped from Mundaring Weir – was leaking from the pipeline.
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 theEastern Railway.To enhance the reliability of the system, each pumping station was designed and constructed with aspare 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 (7.7 million pounds) of equipment in 5,000 separate boxes for the construction of the pumping sets.[27]
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 theGreat 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.
The scheme was "interpreted" by theNational Trust of Western Australia in itsGolden 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 theWater Corporation in 1998. Most of the material was developed between 2001 and 2003.
The history of the construction of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme was detailed in the 2007 documentaryPipe Dreams,[34] which was part of the ABC seriesConstructing 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 (2nd ed.), 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 fromthe original(PDF) on 10 April 2012. Retrieved6 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
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 inThe 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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