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.
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.
Steam pump base 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.
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!
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.
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!
Dry river upstream 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.
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.
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.
 Looking downriver |  July |  Looking upriver |
Posts in old dam wall 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.
 Northern bank, dam to left |  Southern bank |  Upstream from southern bank |
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.
Information for this blog came from a book ‘Pingelly and her Progress’ 1981 by Sylvia Lange, and Lost Pingelly Heritage Group Facebook page entries.
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.
Information for this blog came from a book ‘Pingelly and her Progress’ 1981 by Sylvia Lange, and Lost Pingelly Heritage Group Facebook page entries.