Anne BRAKE
The construction of major infrastructure, including a new pumping station, means No 1 Pump Station, a stand alone award winning heritage place as well as the western trail head of the Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail, must close for up to three years. While the planning and negotiations for the provision of interim facilities continues, the new 'super electric' station and related infrastructure represents an exciting opportunity to place an industrial heritage icon into both a contemporary and future context.
This issue, albeit major, is but one faced by the National Trust of Australia (WA) as it conserves and interprets CY O'Connor's Goldfields Water Supply Scheme which continues to operate as world class 21st century infrastructure. Engineered and constructed at the start of the 20th century, the pipeline was the longest water supply pipeline in the world. O'Connor's scheme, to pump water uphill over 560 km, earned the project the title 'a scheme of madness' and the resulting vitriolic attacks through the Sunday Times and his gruelling work schedule contributed to O'Connor taking his life 10 months before the completion of the scheme, creating a tragic and heroic figure.
This paper will explore the opportunities and constraints that are inherent when an industrial heritage project sits alongside an operational one. Along with the construction of new facilities comes the decommissioning of old ones and the continual need to upgrade and repair. Heightened safety and security measures also puts pressure on ageing infrastructure and questions are raised as to the efficacy of spending precious resources maintaining decommissioned sites when there is a constant need for upgrading and maintenance.
The National Trust works closely with the Water Corporation, the owner of the scheme, and the Western Australian Heritage Council, to continue to make the ongoing and fascinating story, of a visionary politician, his brilliant engineer and the many workers who operated and maintained the Golden Pipeline, accessible