National Engineering Heritage Landmark - Coolgardie Goldfields Water Supply SchemePrint Page

The plaque recognises Coolgardie Goldfields Water Supply Scheme as a National Engineering Heritage Landmark.

 

Founded in 1829, Western Australia struggled in its first fifty years. That changed with the discovery of large deposits of gold in the 1890s that attracted thousands of miners, immigrants and new settlers.  By 1911 the population had reached over 293,923, with most living on the eastern goldfields.

One of the biggest problems facing gold seekers was the lack of adequate water. The goldfields had unreliable rainfall, lacked any surface supplies of fresh water and little prospect of finding useful underground supplies.  By the mid-1890s over 40 per cent of Western Australia's population lived on the eastern goldfields under appalling conditions, having to pay exorbitant prices for domestic water. The harsh and unsanitary conditions on the goldfields had a death rate of 16 per thousand in the period 1896 to 1898, largely due to the prevalence of typhoid fever.

The problem was compounded by the need for large quantities of water in the method of extraction used in the mining process.

The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme was designed by Chief Engineer, Charles Yelverton O’Connor, to provide a reliable source of water for the goldfields. It was an inter-basin transfer water system which extended 560 kilometres from Mundaring Weir (Dam) in the west to Mount Charlotte Reservoir at Kalgoorlie in the east. The scheme included two main reservoirs, the main conduit of the pipeline, eight pump stations, holding tanks and regulating tanks. Pipes were made of 30-inch diameter steel and the original pumps at the eight pumping stations were capable of delivering 22.73 million litres of water per day. Work was completed in early 1903.