Golden Pipeline
A time capsule of water,
gold & Western Australia
A project from the National Trust of WA
A self-guided drive trail between the Perth Hills and Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. Go with the Flow. Follow the water to discover more about the audacious goldfields water supply scheme and Engineer CY O’Connor.
“Future generations, I am quite certain will think of us and bless us for our far seeing patriotism, and it will be said of us, as Isaiah said of old, ‘They made a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert”
GPHT Sites
While No 4 (an empty shell) was a three-pump pumping station, No 5 had only two pumps.
The reason? The countryside becomes flatter and pumps did not have to lift the water so high to get to the next station. You may appreciate this when you drive through the open vistas. Merredin’s huge grain silos are testament to the how a reliable water supply aids development, allowing people to live with certainty in the area. Reliable water was the reason for a decision that might surprise you – to establish a military hospital during WW11 at Merredin.
Visit the remains of the site and walk across the rock from which runoff was to be used in the event the enemy destroyed the water supply pipeline. An open cut mine is a timely reminder that gold was the driving force behind the scheme’s construction.
Explore
Click on any map section or place below to discover The Golden Pipeline.
Northam to Cunderdin
Explore section two
