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”
Regulating tanks
Two regulating tanks were built in the original scheme.
A concrete-lined tank was built at Bakers Hill to regulate the flow at the highest point 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.
The West Northam tank reduced the extreme possible pressure on the pipes in the Avon Valley by 100 feet and regulated the flow to keep pressures at a minimum in regular working, according to a 1905 paper by Charles Stuart Russell Palmer, appointed Engineer in Chief after CY O’Connor’s death.
Explore
Click on any map section or place below to discover The Golden Pipeline.
Northam to Cunderdin
Explore section two
