​Remains of the reservoir and associated works in the Hotham River Nature Reserve are all that remains of the ill-fated Pingelly Water Scheme. 
A critical shortage of potable water in Pingelly (and most wheatbelt towns), spurred a project to build the dam and pump water to an underground tank on the southern edge of Pingelly at a cost of $14,000-$15,000 in 1911.

The reservoir in the river channel was 100 feet (about 40 metres) wide and 15 feet (6 metres) deep at its deepest point.
Water was pumped by a wood-fired steam pump, which operated until 1957. The pump and associated pump operator’s house have gone, with only a concrete pump base and patch of weeds remaining. Operators mentioned are Harry Tate, Harry Pope, Jimmy ‘Leatherjacket’ Whitmore, and Jazeps Savickis. 
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When the dam was built, the river ran for about four months a year and water was fresh with a brownish colour. Exotic carp and perch fish placed in the reservoir thrived, and the Pingelly Angling Club was formed. Thank heavens those destructive carp didn’t persist further downstream!

The dam site is accessed via a dirt track, which is described in this blog. The old dam is about 450 metres west of the point where the track ends. There is no path and one has to scramble through uneven weedy land unless the river is dry and one can walk along the river bed.
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The site is marked by  a line of posts across the river, which is all that remains of the reservoir's front bank. The former tank in front is merely a silt filled-depression.

There are two high earth banks on either side of the river. On the north side the bank forms the western side of the reservoir and diverts any water entering from a prior river channel on the northern side of the river. On the southern side of the river another high bank stops fresh water flowing from dunes via an extinct river channel. Judging by the height of this bank and a depression on the upside, I suspect that  there may have been another smaller excavated tank here.

After four years there were complaints about the amount of water supplied and in 1923, $1032 was spent on extensions. No maps remain, but the extensions may have included a drain on the eastern side of the reserve between Power Street (a track now) and the Great Southern Highway.

Alas, no one was to know that the wheatbelt contained billions of tonnes of salt, which had been transported from the ocean in rainfall over millennia and stored in the subsoil. As bush was cleared for agriculture, groundwater levels rose dissolving the salt, and causing soil salinity and saltier water. In 1923 a dam water test (probably in summer) was double the acceptable level for drinking water and was too salty for irrigation.

‘Saxon Myrtle’, a witty correspondent in the Pingelly-Brookton Leader wrote ‘ Pingelly scheme water is not just water. It is far more than that. It is suitable for motor spirit.  … It is better than hyposulphate for photography….excellent in kerosene lamps….wonderful tonic for neuralgia, rheumatism, consumption…keeps away mosquitos’
The scheme limped along (to the annoyance of ratepayers) until the arrival of pumped water from Wellington (later Harris) Dam near Collie in 1956.

A sobering thought is the total reliance of our towns on the Harris Dam pipeline at a time of increased temperatures and declining rainfall due to climate change.
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Information for this blog came from a book ‘Pingelly and her Progress’ 1981 by Sylvia Lange, and Lost Pingelly Heritage Group Facebook page entries.

​Moorumbine (also spelt Mourambine is located 10km east of Pingelly
It is the first surveyed township in the Central Great Southern district and was a key stopping point from York to the north, Williams to the south-west and for pioneers and sandalwood cutters, who ventured far inland, until the Great Southern Railway line was constructed in 1889.
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First white settlers in the district were graziers who purchased small annual ‘tillage leases’ at local waterholes, which were used as a base for sheep grazing on large grazing leases on native pastures.
Lewis John Bayley was the first settler to take up land in the Moorumbine area. In 1846 he was granted 4000 acres (1620 ha) for grazing sheep near a spring called Nalyaring by local Nyoongars. He was followed by other pastoralists keen on obtaining grazing lands for sheep. Individual flocks were tended by up to four shepherds. Initially there was very little farming conducted.

In 1845 an important trade in sandalwood was commenced with Singapore and Shanghai, which led to a sandalwood collecting boom. Principally young men would take wagons out into the bush to pull out sandalwood trees and prepare the wood for export. Sandalwood collecting was also done by later arriving farmers, who had to obtain income by any means to survive while they were clearing and preparing their land for cropping. They also trapped possums for their skins and hunted kangaroos for meat. From 1900 brown mallet bark was also collected for export, mainly to Germany for tanning leather.

​Gradually more permanent settlers arrived in the district, and the fine buildings to be seen on the Moorumbine Heritage Trail were constructed.
These were all built on 100 acre freehold blocks on water sources. The area was first surveyed by Frances John Gregory in 1856 and Richard Austin in 1858.
A permanent settlement was established in about 1860. Among the first permanent settlers were William Shaddick, William Ingram and Charles Chapman Smith.
​The settlement was initially divided into 100-acre homestead blocks and called Moorumbine Commonage  (a reflection of their English country heritage).
Moorumbine Road was originally a track to Beverley called “the Old Beverley Road” until it reached the township as a laneway known as  “The Mourambine  Lane” . Only half a chain wide, this is the ‘Half Chain Road shown on the Moorumbine Heritage Trail. Convicts were marched along this road to do public works, and barred windows on some Moorumbine buildings indicate that they were used as convict holding cells when required.

‘Disease of the liver,...... is extremely rare considering the amount of alcohol consumed. Ref 2

As with other reported first contacts, Nyoongars were friendly and helpful in assisting Moorumbine visitors to find sandalwood and water sources, which they regarded as shared resources. Unfortunately, a clash of values became obvious when settler’s sheep were occasionally speared. Some Nyoongars worked as shepherds and worked on farms, particularly after mass deaths from devastating disease outbreaks in the 1880’s disrupted their society. 
Official opinion of aborigines at this time is reflected in this quote from an 1860 History of WA, which ignores recorded incidences of conflict.

The growth of “Mourambine" itself continued so that on 24th April 1884 it was declared a townsite. No doubt rumours about 
the  construction  of  the  “Beverley-Albany“  railway  brought about this decision. Between  1884 and 1885  twenty-one town lots were sold, indicating faith in the future of the township. 

However the railway line was surveyed through Pingelly 10 km to the west 
One would have thought the people of Moorumbine would have fought to bring the railway through their village, but there is no record of this. Perhaps they preferred their peaceful existence.
The railway marked the rise of Pingelly and the gradual decline of Moorumbine. 
In the 1897 census, the population was: Moorumbine 80 males, 81 females, 161; Pingelly 52 males, 37 females, 89. Moorumbine today has only a few remaining families and the Moorumbine Heritage Trail buildings.
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St. Patricks Anglican Church is in excellent condition and is still used for the occasional service.

References 

• Pingelly Our People and Progress. 1981 Sylvia Lange
• The York Society Inc
•  Taylor, Thomas George (1860). Western Australia; its history, progress, position, & prospects, Volume 13
•  Lost Pingelly Facebook

• The pioneers of Mourambine, including "a brief history of the townsite, 1842-1924" / researched and written by Lesley A. Lane and Florence C. Wilkes is a book, (which I haven't read) that is kept at the WA State Library .