Mundaring Weir
The Lake is a reservoir CYO'Connor in the southwest of the Australian state of Western Australia, 39 kilometers east of Perth in the Darling Range. The dam, with the Helena River is dammed, is known as the Mundaring Weir. So is also called the nearest site.
The town of Mundaring was founded in 1898 and the same year began the construction of the weir.
History
A soldier, Robert Dale, was the first European who explored the region in 1829. Until the construction of the weir in the 1890s, the European population increased in the area not too much. The construction of a railway line from Mundaring to the site was made necessary by the construction of dams. The Irish- Australian engineer CY O'Connor was involved in the planning of water supply for the Eastern Goldfields of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in the eastern part of Western Australia.
The lake, which was dammed at the Mundaring Weir, hie first Helena River Reservoir, but was then renamed Lake CYO'Connor.
The operator of the dam, the Water Corporation, referred to him as Mundaring Dam, a name that is otherwise used by any official institution. The logo of the Local Government Area Mundaring Shire shows a picture of the dam.
Work on the dam began today in the 1940s; In November 1951, he was finished.
Beginning of the 1970s were built below this dam, another dam, the reservoir Pipehead.
Monitoring of the dam
Like all buildings of this age and this structure must be regularly checked, serviced and repaired even this dam.
On the first dam there was a small cottage in the middle, which was used to monitor the dam from the inside. When the dam was increased, they built this cottage also back on, but it no longer served its original purpose.
2009 they built two inputs on the air side of the dam, in the south, to facilitate in the north and one to access the inspection tunnel. The dam is leaking and the following two photos show the changes in the spots between 2008 and 2010 at a site on the water seeps through the dam.
2010
Planned renovations 2010-2014
The Mundaring Weir Water Supply Improvement Project includes significant changes to the pumping stations and water treatment plants, as well as general improvements to the entire dam.
Railway
Mundaring Weir was the final destination of the Mundaring Weir Branch Railway, which was originally built by the Public Works Department of Western Australia to transport building materials for the dam.
Only after completion of the dam, the place for day-trippers from Perth became popular, who came to visit the reservoir and hold picnics.
The heaped dam site and the lower switchbacks at the end of the railway line (which can still be seen when the water level drops in the reservoir to less than 35%) were clearly visible on the postcards of the many weekend and picnic trains for until the end of the 1940s weir drove represented.
The steepness of the Mundaring Weir Branch Railway limited the capacity of the picnic trains, since the MSA Garratt steam locomotives, although very suitable as tractors, but were only available in small numbers in the 1940s, when the military was flooded.
The railway line was abandoned in 1952.
In addition, there was construction train on wooden rails, which served for military for transportation of sawn wood from a sawmill about 5 km. There, the timber was loaded onto the railroad previously described. It was opened in 1909 and closed again in 1913.
Facilities
The Mundaring Weir Hotel (formerly Hotel reservoir, then: Goldfields Weir Hotel ) was built in 1898. It was an important place where O'Connor regularly stayed during the dam construction. After a period of decline, the house was again more popular than the current owner, Jens Jorgensen, who bought the hotel in 1984, made it a picnic area for visitors to Perth in recent years. There were also concerts annually performed, eg by David Helfgott, during and after his comeback as a concert pianist.
The Old Pumping Station No.. Today one houses the CYO'Connor Museum, which is operated by the National Trust. There is also the Kookaburra outdoor cinema and the Department of Environment and Conservation has to be there Hills Forest Activity Centre and regional administration building.
Prior to the rationalization of the work on this site offered the Water Authority of Western Australia also houses for their workers. There is a Youth Hostel ( rather than the full primary school ), an art exhibition and many picnic areas. There are still at the dam houses for Ranger, and still in operation pumping stations and water treatment plants.
Bibbulmum track
The 963 km long Bibbulmum track, an Australian long-distance trail starts in Kalamunda and follows the Piesse Brook and then the valley of the Helena River. The road crosses the Mundaring Weir and follows the Lake CYO'Connor at its northern shore. He then turns south and leads to Albany.
Golden Pipeline Project
Main article: Golden Pipeline The history and context of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme was presented at the Golden Pipeline Project to the Water Corporation to the National Trust prompted. There is a whole system of guidebooks, hiking trails and sites with information. The largest part of this project was created in 2001-2003.