Science and Colonial Development 



the increasing number of mines, which had reached 

 the productive stage, intensified the strain upon 

 the existing supply. 



In these circumstances Sir John Forrest, the 

 Premier of Western Australia, induced the Parlia- 

 ment of the Colony to authorise, at an estimated 

 cost of .2,500,000, a scheme for the transportation 

 of water to the gold-fields from some spot upon 

 the coastal range in the neighbourhood of Perth. 

 The undertaking was daring in its magnitude. The 

 water must first be collected and detained by a 

 barrage ; then it had to be carried 330 miles to 

 a point 1 200 feet above its point of departure. 

 The technical details of execution cannot here be 

 given. 1 It will suffice to say that the pipes, which 

 were of a pattern invented in Australia, were manu- 

 factured in that country, and that the pumping 

 machinery was the work of an English firm. So 

 difficult, moreover, was the nature of the ground 

 that it was impossible to drive the water for the 

 whole distance, by one pumping plant. Eight sub- 

 stations were erected, at each of which there was 

 a complete installation for the reception of the 

 water and its transmission to the next station, 

 together with an additional installation for use 

 in the event of a breakdown ; and the whole 

 undertaking, which was carried through without 

 a single accident and in a brilliantly successful 

 manner, has cost very little more than the original 



1 They will be found in an article entitled "An English 

 Engineering Triumph in Australia," in The Worlds Work^ for 

 October 1905. 



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