The Goldfields Pipeline

We were almost home! Another five hundred or so kilometres and we would be home having a cup of tea with Mum. I wanted to take an image of the Goldcoast Pipeline as it had always held a fascination for me. Below is

CHEERS ERUPTED AS water arrived in Western Australia’s arid goldfields on the afternoon of 24 January 1903. But the celebrations weren’t to welcome rain.
In 45-degree heat, former WA premier Sir John Forrest opened the valve, sending water gushing into Mount Charlotte Reservoir in the outback town of Kalgoorlie.
The 566km pipeline pumping water from Perth’s foothills to the desert had taken five years to complete, and would later become known as one of Australia’s greatest feats of engineering.
At the opening ceremony, Sir John paid tribute to C.Y. O’Connor, the visionary engineer behind the goldfields water supply scheme: “the great builder of this work” that aimed “to bring happiness and comfort to the people of the goldfields for all time.”
During construction, O’Connor had been the target of a barrage of criticism over costs, and he committed suicide less than a year before his ambitious project was completed.


See the full story published in Australian Geographic here. I think you'll agree it makes fascinating reading.