Rain in the Perth Hills

27th July 2014

More torrential rain this morning so we started off driving to Kalamunda, a small town in the Perth Hills which is surrounded by forests. Unfortunately all the tracks were very wet so we decided to have a cup of coffee instead and visit the farmers market that is held there every weekend.  The local farmers bring in their produce which is really fresh.  We couldn't buy much though as we are leaving for Sydney on Thursday.

Mundaring Weir [not letting the rain spoil the visit]

From here we drove to Mundaring Weir, which is really a dam.  This is the bold project completed in 1903 to deliver water to the goldfields in the east of the state.  The water travels 557 kms inland via steel pipes and rises 390 metres on the way.  As there is no reliable water source in the desert areas this was instrumental in allowing the goldfields to flourish and also provide irrigation to areas on the way for crop production.  The red desert soil is quite fertile when water is applied.

The dam was originally a weir but the reservoir capacity was increased in 1950 by building a second wall 10 metres higher in front of the first one.  Now it would be an unusual circumstance for the reservoir to be so high that it flowed over the wall, in fact despite all the rain we have seen the water level was quite low.  Suprisingly, the Mundaring Weir is not the water source for Perth, all the water is pumped East.

No 1 Pump Station constructed 1902

The original pumping station, now long since superseded, was steam operated, wood burning and known as No 1 Pump Station.  The National  Trust administer the building but unfortunately it was not open today so we didn't get a chance to look at the machinery.