AUSTRALIAN TROOPS EMBARKING FOR FRANCE 



Photograph by George Bell 



So long as red blood continues to run in human veins, so long will men continue to 

 pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the maintenance of what they 

 believe to be their country's risrhts. 



centering at Kalgoorlie, a serious problem 

 was presented. The region is without 

 streams and fresh-water lakes, and wells 

 yield only salt water. The nearest supply 

 in quantity is 300 miles distant. By con- 

 verting the salt water into fresh with con- 

 densers, by utilizing the few soaks, by 

 storing some of the scant rainfall, by 

 hauling water with camels and later by 

 rail, mining operations could be carried 

 on at great expense. When dry blow- 

 ing of alluvial gold had exhausted the 

 rich surface deposits and the equally rich 

 ledge was encountered, the future profits 

 of the field depended not only upon the 

 amount of the mineral — gold — but also 

 upon the mineral — water. 



To meet this situation a most ambitious 

 scheme was undertaken — the construction 

 of a pipe-line from a point near the coast 



over desert range ana valley to supply an 

 artificial reservoir with 5,000,000 gallons a 

 day. The length of the 33-inch steel main 

 pipe is 351 miles — 115 miles longer than 

 the Los Angeles aqueduct — and the water 

 is lifted by a series of pumps to a height 

 of 1, 290 feet. The cost was great, $5,000,- 

 000 for the manufacture of the pipe alone. 

 The water is sold by the government 

 at an average rate of 75 cents per thou- 

 sand gallons — a price which seems large 

 to American consumers — but it replaces 

 the wholly inadequate supply of poor 

 water bought at the rate of $8.00 to 

 $12.00 per thousand gallons. Without 

 the Goldfields' pipe line the richest min- 

 ing fields of Australia with the cities 

 of Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie, and Boulder 

 would revert to their original state — a 

 forbidding desert. 



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