Engineers responsible for WA's water supply in the 1890s had to come up with innovative ways of supplying water to trains as well as for other purposes. You can visit Karalee Rocks where they literally got water from a stone. You can also drive on part of the old railway formation.

Engineer for railways

Offering CY O'Connor the position of Engineer in Chief, WA Premier Sir John Forrest cabled him in New Zealand describing the work as involving "Railways, harbours, everything". Forrest's programme with public works in plenty included extending the railway east as gold was discovered further and further inland. Not only this, it had to be rerouted via a tunnel because the original gradient up the Darling Scarp was too steep for increasing loads. In December 1896 O'Connor had to ask to be relieved from railway duties to concentrate on his other responsibilities, in particular the pipeline.

Rush to build railways

Coincidentally O'Connor was on a trip to survey the proposed railway route and staying in Southern Cross on the night of 16 September 1892 when Arthur Bayley arrived to register the first claim at what was to become Coolgardie. The sight of the pile of gold nuggets he deposited at the bank triggered Australia's greatest gold rush. Plans to extend the railway east as far as the Yilgarn fields had to be altered before the line was even built. In 1894 it reached Southern Cross and was pushed through quickly to Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie by 1896.

Railway route

Thanks to standardisation of Australia's rail tracks, the railway east has been relaid. Much of the new line no longer follows the old route - for example the train now passes through the Avon Valley to Northam via Toodyay rather than via Clackline and Spencer's Brook. It was relaid further north of Southern Cross to service the iron ore industry at Koolyanobbing, bypassing Coolgardie. You can still make out much of the old railway formation and a section has been modified to take family cars as part of the Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail.

374km route

At the 374 km mark on the pipeline a Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail information sign alerts you to essential elements in the engineering of the water supply pipeline. You are on the old railway formation - the pipeline was built alongside the railway line where possible so the pipes could be easily distributed. The "Silver Ghost" used to be driven slong the track in front of the train so the driver could make sure the pipe hadn't burst and washed the track away. Here you will see evidence of the trench in which the pipeline was laid and buried in order to minimise expansion and contraction of the joints in extreme temperatures. Remains of wooden slats and hoops of wire are left from the wooden pipe used in the 1930s.

Railway catchments and reserves

Trains needed vast quantities of good quality water for steam engines. In September 1893 CY O'Connor sent assistant engineer William Shields to look for possible sources along the railway line then being extended to Southern Cross. In a paper on "Water-Supply on the Yilgarn Railway, Western Australia", presented to the Institution of Engineers, Shields describes building channels to drain runoff into reservoirs excavated at the base of granite hills. When the railway was started estimated traffic was one train in each direction per week - thanks to the gold rush on average 20 engines had to be watered daily.

Karalee Rocks

Karalee Rocks on the Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail is a fine example of a rock water catchment. Runoff from two rocks is channelled via a steel aqueduct more than 200 m long to a reservoir. The water then had to be pumped via a pipe to a steel overhead tank near Karalee station about 3 km south. In 2001 The National Trust of Australia (WA) restored the aqueduct in order to keep the system operational and the reservoir filled. The work was sensitively done using engineering techniques used in 1895 when it was first built, in particular riveting.

Woolgangie

Another rock catchment and railway reservoir on the Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail is at Woolgangie. John Aspinall, a prospector, described it in March 1895 as "the finest catchment area I have yet seen and the granites size up very bold and prominent". About 18 to 20 teams (say 100 horses) of carriers plying the goldfields route were camped there at the time. Later that year a water famine put pressure on the government to provide a permanent supply. The "splendid" dam dried up and horses died of thirst. Telegrams were sent imploring aid and O'Connor had to arrange for special water trains from Northam.