Daring Man
MANDARING, WA – Jesus of Nazareth turned water into wine. Charles Yelverton O’Connor made water run uphill.
Necessity, as usual, mothered invention. CY O’Connor had been head-hunted in the late 1800s by WA burghers to bring water to the goldfields of Kalgoorlie. Trouble was, the golden mile was 600 kays inland, with the most reliable water source on the wrong side of several rises.
Unfazed, O’Connor built the Golden Pipeline, which is silver, and punctuated the route with eight pump stations. He was the first man to pioneer the steam-driven wizardry, moving H2O uphill, though CY never hung around to hear the taps thundering on the goldfields.
As poeticized in Robert Drewe’s novel The Drowner, CY committed suicide in 1901 (see Heroes in Cassowary Crossing), two years before his precious water arrived.
[The pipe begins from Mundaring Weir, near the Western Gate. Pump Station #1 stands nearby, with portholes and smokestack. An excellent pipeline guidebook is available through WA Tourism.]