Clackline to West Northam tanks This section offers a quite different experience to other sections of Kep Track. You’ll be travelling about 6 km along a bitumen road that passes under Great Eastern Highway and also along the pipeline access road.
Pipeline In this section you’ll get up close to the pipeline and you’ll get more of an appreciation of how it is laid, how it works, how it crosses rivers and more. You’ll be beside the pipeline itself in parts and be able to see the original steel pipe. [more]
The reason for Kep Track not being on the railway reserve in this section is that the train never went this way. So be prepared for steeper gradients! The route chosen to extend the train line to Northam was a matter for some controversy. [more]
On this section you’ll appreciate why the term ‘Golden Pipeline’ was chosen by the National Trust for its pipeline project. The name encompasses benefits of the pipeline other than water for gold: the Golden Fleece and Fields of Gold. [more]
Pipeline In this section you’ll get up close to the pipeline and you’ll get more of an appreciation of how it is laid, how it works, how it crosses rivers and more. You’ll be beside the pipeline itself in parts and be able to see the original steel pipe. Locking bar pipe Once the decision to build a pipeline was taken, much thought went into the type of pipe to be used. CY O’Connor ratified the choice of locking-bar pipe for the Coolgardie scheme: both leakage and friction would be minimised because it contained no rivets. (Rivet holes were potential sources of leaks, rivet heads increased friction head.) Now cement-lined, original locking-bar pipe still accounts for about half of today’s pipeline.
Original pipe The pipes laid in 1901and 1902 were made from steel to an innovative design patented by Melbourne engineer Mephan Ferguson in 1896. To make a pipe two steel plates, each rolled into a half cylinder, were locked together by two longitudinal bars. The dovetailed edges of the plates were inserted in the H-shaped bars which were then squeezed closed. The original pipe can be identified by locking-bars running their length.
Pick the original pipe from the thick bar running its length then look for different approaches taken by engineers since the 1930s when the pipeline was relaid above ground and the pipe lengths welded together. Locking bars were laid on the horizontal until about 1938 when the procedure was changed with the bars being set at 45 degrees to the horizontal to ensure that if one pipe were to split along the locking bar, the split would not carry on into the locking bar of the adjoining pipe. However, the upper bar retained rainwater, hastening corrosion, so the later practice is to lay the pipes with the bars 225 mm apart.
Railway Line The reason for Kep Track not being on the railway reserve in this section is that the train never went this way. So be prepared for steeper gradients! The route chosen to extend the line to Northam was a matter for some controversy. Pipeline yes, railway line no On this particular section railway history is to the rear. The train went a circuitous route via Spencer’s Brook to Northam and so the pipeline didn’t follow the railway, taking a more direct route instead. In so doing, the pipeline went up and down hills.
The three major towns in the Avon, York, Northam and Newcastle (now Toodyay) vied for their own particular lines when the decision was taken to continue the railway east from Guildford. Public meetings were held and the debate raged hot in the press. A line via Spencer’s Brook was the compromise because spurs could be run from there to all three towns.
Settlement On this section you’ll appreciate why the term ‘Golden Pipeline’ was chosen by the National Trust for its pipeline project. The name encompasses benefits of the pipeline other than water for gold: the Golden Fleece and Fields of Gold. Golden Fleece Six million sheep rely on the pipeline and in this section you’ll get to see a few of them. Better not count them though in case you fall asleep and fall off your bicycle. Europeans settled in larger numbers in the Northam area in 1836, wanting pastures for their flocks that supplied the British markets. Fields of Gold Water is essential for growing wheat as well as wool. Just as the pipeline gives pastoralists security so they do not have to rely solely on rainfall to water their flocks, so too it gives agriculturalists security so they can settle permanently in one spot to make planting a crop a worthwhile proposition.
Worth its weight? The pipeline’s contribution to the economic development of both the state of Western Australia and nation of Australia is enormous – it is the basis of billions of dollars of economic activity annually. It is the Water Corporation’s single largest asset and is classed as an essential service. Approximately 10 000 services are provided via the 8000 km pipe network that includes the main conduit and lateral extensions.
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