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”
Although renowned for its pie shop, this town was not named for gastronomical reasons.
It is said to have been named after the leader of the gang of fettlers that laid the railway line in this, the highest section of the Eastern Railway. Not surprisingly then it boasted the highest reservoir on the original goldfields water supply scheme.
A concrete-lined tank at Bakers Hill regulated the flow in the pipeline on the long and irregular section between pumping stations 2 and 3. No 2 pumped water 22 miles and lifted it 340 feet to Bakers Hills from where it gravitated 12 miles to the West Northam tank before flowing down to the reservoir serving No 3 Pump Station.
A townsite, originally known as Mount Baker, was declared in 1902 with most activity related to timber cutting. The small village around the railway siding grew somewhat thanks to the government’s soldier settlement scheme introduced after WW1.
Click on any map section or place below to discover The Golden Pipeline.
Northam to Cunderdin
Explore section two