Il. Cc. 0. BURGE. 
that Freemantle will supersede Albany as the port of call for the 
mail steamers. 
The Coolgardie water supply about to be begun is also a large 
work. A concrete dam one hundred feet high will impound 
3,300 million gallons at Greenmount Ranges, near Perth, three 
hundred feet above sea level, from whence the water will be 
pumped to a distance of three hundred and thirty miles, and to a 
height of 1,400 feet to a service reservoir near Coolgardie. This 
project is probably the most remarkable referred to in this address, 
owing to the combination of the great distance between source 
and delivery, and the height of the latter. Suppose Wyalong, 
which is eight hundred feet above the sea, raised to double that 
height, and supplied by pumping from Prospect, and you have an 
idea of the magnitude of the work. It is to cost two and half 
millions. The confidence in the permanency of Coolgardie which 
is implied by this undertaking, is also a noteworthy feature. 
In railway extension this western colony is progressing rapidly, 
three hundred and fifty-seven miles of new lines were estimated 
in the railway report of June, 1896, to be opened between that 
date and December 1897, and certainly, if results in the past are 
to be relied upon, enterprise in this direction is justifiable, as the 
existing Government rail ways have been paying the unprecedented 
dividend of 124% on the capital invested. 
In South Australia the only important work to be mentioned 
is the Adelaide water supply scheme, which is just finished. It 
consists of a weir across the Onkaparinka River, from which the 
supply is drawn, a tunnel from thence through the Mount Lofty 
range, over three miles long, a storage reservoir at the Happy 
Valley, of four hundred and forty acres water surface, retained 
by a dam over half a mile in length, and seventy-two feet in 
height, and finally an outlet tunnel and steel main to Adelaide, 
the whole distance covered being nearly sixteen miles. 
Coming to Victoria, the only really large work is the sewerage 
of Melbourne, which is well advanced, all the larger tunnels being 
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