Description
This is a black-and-white photograph showing Sir John and Lady Forrest in the centre of a large crowd at the official turning on of the water at Mount Charlotte, Kalgoorlie on 24 January 1903. Some of the onlookers have broken through the restraining barricade around the reservoir and are sitting on or beside the concrete reservoir wall. The photograph measures 37 cm x 29 cm.
Educational value
- The photograph records the official opening of the Coolgardie Water Supply Scheme, an ambitious engineering feat built by the Western Australian Government to overcome shortages of fresh water in the state's eastern gold fields.
- In the 1890s prospectors rushed to the areas that became known as Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie following rich gold discoveries, but there was almost no fresh water in the arid gold fields. Some men died of thirst, while others died of diseases spread by lack of sanitation and clean water. The gold-mining industry also needed water. Attempts to obtain water from local underground sources and dams proved unsustainable.
- A pipeline from the better watered coastal area was the only viable solution to the problem. Water was lifted a height of 390 m and travelled a distance of about 560 km along a pipeline to Mount Charlotte Reservoir in Kalgoorlie. The pumping scheme still operates today.
- Sir John Forrest, at the time Minister for Defence in the Australian Government, was invited to turn on the water at Mount Charlotte Reservoir on 24 January 1903 because, as Premier of WA from 1890 to 1901, he had been instrumental in persuading parliament to approve the pipeline scheme. Before he turned on the tap Sir John gave a speech during which he quoted from the Bible, saying 'Future generations, I am quite certain, will think of us and bless us for our far-seeing patriotism, and it will be said of us, as Isaiah said of old, "they made a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert"'.
- This photograph was taken at the second of two ceremonies that Sir John Forrest performed that day as part of the official opening of the gold fields water supply, the first having occurred in the morning at Coolgardie, the self-proclaimed 'mother of the gold fields'. Two ceremonies were held in order to involve both towns in the proceedings and thus avoid giving offence. When the project was first proposed in 1895 Coolgardie was the centre of mining operations but by the time the pipeline was completed Kalgoorlie-Boulder had boomed and the pipeline was extended east to Mount Charlotte.
- Huge crowds gathered on the hill to see the turning on of the water. The summit was decked out with fluttering flags and shade tents. The story is told that no cups had been provided for the dignitaries to have a celebratory drink so a billy can was borrowed from workers. The dignitaries were entertained by lavish banquets and tours of underground mines. Federal politician Sir George Reid quipped at one of the banquets, where champagne flowed freely, 'Never have I seen so much enthusiasm for water - and so little of it drunk'.
- Mount Charlotte in Kalgoorlie was chosen as the terminus for the water supply pipeline because water stored in a reservoir built high within the mountain could gravitate downwards to supply homes, business and mines. The top of Mount Charlotte was excavated by pick and shovel to accommodate the 9-million-L concrete water tank shown in this photograph.
- Originally the Reservoir was unroofed but it was later covered to prevent evaporation and keep the tank and water clean. The myth persists that it was roofed following a drowning. This legend lives on in 'The Drowner', Robert Drewe's award-winning novel about the Scheme, which features the engineer-in-charge, C Y O'Connor.
- The bell-mouth pipe shown discharging water at the top of the Reservoir was a design common to inlet pipes in receiving tanks at the steam pumping stations situated along the pipeline's route. Within a short time of the Scheme's opening all of these pipes had to be repositioned. Their design allowed the water to be exposed to air, and dissolved oxygen in the water caused extensive corrosion within the pipes. In 1910 consultants recommended that all inlets, with the exception of Mount Charlotte as it was at the end of the line, should discharge near the bottom of the tank instead of above the surface of the water.
- The photograph appears to show water from the pipeline gushing into the Reservoir but an eye-witness account reveals that water was recirculated to give the impression of pipeline water arriving. Mining engineer William de Mole wrote to his wife in Melbourne: 'John turned the water on with a golden key, but the joke is that he didn't turn it on, only turned on a dummy stream! … At night they pumped up water from the tank and forced it back through four nozzles pointed upward from the middle of the tank and played coloured electric lights on it, just circulating it to make a spectacle'.
- Pumping had in fact begun in March 1902 but the pipeline was charged slowly to prevent air pockets developing and the water finally reached Kalgoorlie a week before the ceremony.
- The Western Australian Government presented Sir John Forrest with an album in 'commemoration of the turning on of the water at Kalgoorlie on 24 January 1903'. It includes the invitation for the opening ceremony commemorated in this photograph. The photograph bears the caption '"Au fait accompli" Kalgoorlie's triumph' (not visible in the image).
