50th Anniversary of the Raising of Mundaring WeirPrint Page

The plaque commemorates the 50th anniversary of the raising of Mundaring Weir and the augmentation of the Goldfields and Agricultural Areas Water Supply Scheme between 1946 and 1951.

 

Mundaring Weir, the storage reservoir for the goldfields water supply, is a concrete gravity dam. When completed in 1902 it was claimed to be the highest overflow dam in the world.   The height of the dam wall was increased by 9.75 metres shortly after the end of World War Two.

 

New concrete was placed alongside the old wall on the downstream face with slots to keep the new section free from the old. If the new concrete had been placed directly against the original wall a crack would have developed as the concrete cooled and shrank on setting. The slots were filled after the temperature of the two masses had equalised. An onsite display has photographs of the old and new walls and a description of the raising.