A Big Water Scheme.

Hastings Standard, Issue 479, 18 November 1897, Page 4

A Big Water Scheme.

The scheme for supplying Coolgardie with water from ranges nearly 400 miles distant is the biggest thing of the kind that has ever been proposed in Australia. It has, however, been favorably reported on by the three English experts by whom the Government at Perth have had the plans examined ; and, if the West Australian Parliament chooses to raise the money, the'work can be executed. The experts, Messrs Carruthers, Deacon, and ITnwin, completed their consideration of the scheme in August, and their report has just been published in the Perth journals. A strip of West Australia, running north and south, is practically without permanent surface water. There are no creeks or rivers, because there are no high ranges to intercept moisture-laden clouds and cause the precipitation of the rain. The country is desert, because little or no rain fell on it. It is an elevated tableland. Coolgardie, the present centre of the auriferous region, is about 1200 ft above sea level, and the nearest mountain range in which a storage reservoir could be formed is 328 miles distant, i.e., Greenmount range, 35 miles from Fremantle. Nor is distance the only difficulty. Coolgardie and the site of the proposed reservoir are nearly on the same level; so that if a channel were cut between the two places there would be no flow of water. Nor is that all. A supply for Coolgardie to be of any good would have to stand high enough above the town to produce a strong pressure. To give the water both a flow to Coolgardie and a "head" when it gets.there, provision has to be made for lifting it en route 2,605 ft. The lifting has to be done by stages. In the first 137 miles there are to be four lifts of 420 ft. each, and in the next 182 miles five lifts of 185 ft. each. That is to say, at nine points en route the water will be raised to a new elevation from point to point. A big reservoir will be required at the starting point, small reservoirs at each pumping station and a fair-sized reservoir, capable of holding a week's supply on Mount Burgess, overlooking Coolgardie. It is estimated that a daily pumping rate of five million gallons will have to be maintained at each of the nine lifting station?. The conduit is to consist throughout of 888 miles of iron piping from 26)8. to 3Gin. in diameter, said

that piping is to be laid on the surface of the ground, not under it. The total cost of the scheme has been estimated at £2,500,000, and the expense of keeping it up at £350,000 a year. "Will the Coolgardie district (taking that term in its wide sense) last long enough to justify such a piece of engineering ? Let us hope that there are reasonable grounds for thinking that it may. —Australasian.