Lake CYO'Connor
| Lake CYO'Connor | |||||||||||
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| Coordinates | 31 ° 57 '36 " S , 116 ° 10' 17" E | ||||||||||
| Data on the structure | |||||||||||
| Construction time: | 1940-1951 | ||||||||||
| Data on the reservoir | |||||||||||
| Altitude (at congestion destination ) | 131 m | ||||||||||
| Water surface | 6.76 km² | ||||||||||
| Reservoir length | 13.5 km | ||||||||||
| Reservoir width | 1.25 km | ||||||||||
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The Lake CYO'Connor is an artificial lake in the southwest of the Australian state of Western Australia , 39 kilometers east of Perth in the Darling Range . The dam that dams the Helena River is known as Mundaring Weir . This is also the name of the nearest place.
The town of Mundaring was founded in 1898 and in the same year construction of the weir began.
history
One soldier, Robert Dale , was the first European to explore the region in 1829. Until the construction of the weir in the 1890s, the European population in the area did not increase significantly. The construction of the dam also made it necessary to build a railway from Mundaring to the construction site. The Irish-Australian civil engineer CY O'Connor was involved in the planning of the water supply for the Eastern Goldfields at Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in the eastern part of Western Australia.
The reservoir that was dammed at Mundaring Weir was initially called the Helena River Reservoir , but was then renamed Lake CYO'Connor .
The dam's operator, the Water Corporation , calls it Mundaring Dam , a name not used by any other official body. The Local Government Area Mundaring Shire logo features an image of the dam.
Work on today's dam began in the 1940s; it was completed in November 1951.
In the early 1970s, another reservoir, the Pipehead Reservoir , was built beneath this dam .
Monitoring the dam
Like all structures of this age and construction, this dam also needs regular monitoring, maintenance and repair.
On the first dam there was a small house in the middle that was used to monitor the dam from the inside. When the dam was raised, this house was also rebuilt, but it no longer served its original purpose.
In 2009, two entrances were built on the air side of the dam, one in the north and one in the south, to facilitate access to the inspection tunnels. The dam is leaking and the following two photos show the changes in the spots between 2008 and 2010 at a point where water seeps through the dam.
2008
2010
Planned renovations 2010–2014
The Mundaring Weir Water Supply Improvement Project includes major changes to the pumping stations and water treatment systems, as well as general improvements to the entire dam.
railroad
Mundaring Weir was the destination station of the Mundaring Weir Branch Railway , which was originally built by the Public Works Department of Western Australia to transport the construction materials for the dam.
It was only after the dam was completed that the site became popular with day-trippers from Perth, who came to tour the reservoir and have picnics.
The heaped dam area and the lower hairpin bends at the end of the railway line (which can still be seen today when the water level in the reservoir sinks below 35%) were clearly visible on the postcards of the many weekend and picnic trains that ran until the late 1940s Driving weir, shown.
The steepness of the Mundaring Weir Branch Railway limited the capacity of the picnic trains, as the MSA - Garratt steam locomotives were very suitable as tractors, but were only available in small numbers in the 1940s, when the weir was flooded.
The railway line was closed in 1952.
In addition, there was a construction site railway on wooden rails, which was used to transport the sawn wood from a sawmill approx. 5 km to the weir. There the wood was reloaded onto the railway described above. It opened in 1909 and closed again in 1913.
Facilities
The Mundaring Weir Hotel (formerly: Reservoir Hotel , then: Goldfields Weir Hotel ) was built in 1898. It was an important place where O'Connor regularly stayed overnight while the dam was being built. After a period of decline, the house has regained popularity in recent years when the current owner, Jens Jorgensen , who bought the hotel in 1984, turned it into a getaway for visitors to Perth. Concerts were also performed there every year, e.g. B. also by David Helfgott , during and after his comeback as a concert pianist.
The old Pumping Station No. 1 is now home to the CYO'Connor Museum , operated by the National Trust . There is also the Kookaburra open-air cinema and the Department of Environment and Conservation has its Hills Forest Activity Center and regional administration building there.
Before streamlining work at this location, the Water Authority of Western Australia also offered homes for their workers. There is a youth hostel (instead of the closed elementary school), an art exhibition and lots of picnic areas. There are still houses for rangers on the dam, as well as pumping stations and water treatment systems that are still in operation.
Bibbulmum Track
The 963 km long Bibbulmum Track , an Australian long distance hiking trail, begins in Kalamunda and follows the Piesse Brook and then the Helena River valley . The trail crosses Mundaring Weir and follows Lake CYO'Connor on its north shore. Then it turns south and leads to Albany .
Golden Pipeline Project
Main article: Golden Pipeline
The history and connection of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme was presented in the Golden Pipeline Project , which the Water Corporation initiated the National Trust. There is a whole system of guidebooks, hiking trails and websites of information there. The largest part of this project originated in the years 2001-2003.
Web links
- Mundaring and Hills Historical Society website
- Photos from Mundaring Weir
- Mundaring Shire website
- Water Storage in Our Dams . Water Corporation
- Travel the Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail . www.GoldenPipeline.com.au
- Mundaring Weir - WA . ExplorOz.com
- Map of Helena River Reservoir, WA . Bonzle.com
literature
- Ian Elliot: Mundaring - A History of the Shire . Mundaring Shire. Mundaring (1983). 2nd edition. ISBN 0-9592776-0-9
- Lindsay Watson: The Railway History of Midland Junction: commemorating the centenary of Midland Junction, 1895-1995 . L&S Drafting in partnership with the Swan Shire and the Western Australian Light Railway Preservation Association. Swan View WA (1995). ISBN 0-646-24461-2
- Steve Parish: Australian Touring Atlas . Steve Parish Publishing Pty. Ltd. Acherfield QLD (2007). ISBN 978174193232-4 . P. 78
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mundaring . The Age (February 8, 2004)
- ^ Mundaring Weir Water Supply Improvement Project . Water Corporation ( Memento of the original from November 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ H. Wanderer: Daring Rides on a Wooden Switchback . Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin (February 1970). Pp. 46-48
- ↑ a b Mundaring Weir Hotel - History . www.MundaringWeirHotel.com.au
