Water to the Goldfields

This steel pipe which runs from Perth to Kalgoorlie 530 kilometres away has a series of eight pumping stations and two small holding dams to control pressures and to lift the water over an inland ridge.

It was constructed in 1896 and provided water to the dry barren interior of Western Australian goldfields in Kalgoorlie

During the early 1890s, thousands of settlers had travelled into the barren and dry desert centre of Western Australia in search of gold, but the existing infrastructure for the supply of water was non-existent and an urgent need arose.

Prior to the scheme water condensers, reliance on irregular rain, and water trains] were part of the range of sources.