A Pipeline In The Sun

In the late 1800s there was a gold strike , one of the worlds richest, in the area now known as Kalgoorlie, gold was discovered by Paddy Hannan, known as the King of Kalgoorlie, but equally responsible for the development of the goldfields was Charles O’Connor.

His was the vision that saw water being pumped some 360 miles across some of the driest areas on earth, remember we are talking about the turn of the last century, such was the enormity of this scheme that it received a lot of criticism for the huge cost and doubts that it would work.

The pumps were started in April 1902 with water not reaching Kalgoorlie until January 16^th 1903, just a month before this, in the face of all the criticism O’Connor tragically committed suicide, never knowing of the success or the huge service to the goldfields area he had made.

This pipeline allows the bronze statue of Paddy Hannan to offer passers by a cooling drink of water from his bronze water bag.

A Pipeline in the sun.

I see the goldfields pipeline

A-gleaming in the sun,

And hear the water gurgle

As through the pipe it runs.

It seems to sing of days gone by

And hear the miners cry

For water, we need water

For without it we will die.

O’Connor was a clever man

He thought of the water scheme

And planned to run it all those miles

To answer the miners dream.

I wish that he could see today

How far that scheme has come

And hear the water gurgle

Through the pipeline in the sun.

If he could only see today

The gardens, parks and pools

And hear the story as it’s told

In all the goldfields schools;

Of how O’Connor planned that scheme

Before his race was run

To keep the water flowing

Through the pipeline in the sun.

I wish that he could see today

How far that scheme has come

And hear the water gurgle

Through the pipeline in the sun.

Written by Daisy Breen