This section runs between the commercial hub of the hills and what was a ‘timber town’. You can get refreshments at both Mundaring and Sawyers Valley and you can take a longer break to visit the local museum and enjoy a heritage tour around Mundaring townsite. [more]

Pipeline

Where possible the pipes were buried in a trench dug alongside the railway line. However the shortest route was chosen between the weir and Northam so instead of following the gentle gradient of the railway reserve, the pipe goes up and down hills. Kep Track doesn’t!

Following the train

In general the pipeline followed the railway line for most of the journey from Kalgoorlie. This was so trains could distribute the pipes. As consulting engineer John Carruthers warned CY O’Connor in 1896, if it didn’t just think what an array of mules and jiggers you would require to cart the pipes.

So, in general the pipeline followed the railway line.  The exception was most of the section between the weir and Northam. Instead, the pipeline follows a more direct route. As CY O’Connor’s successor as Engineer in Chief, Charles Palmer, told a meeting of the Institution of Engineers, between the weir and Northam “the railway was deviated from, in order to shorten the distance, and also for the purpose of traversing higher country and thus reducing the pressure on the pipe”.

Sign of the pipe

A sign alerts you to where the pipeline crosses under the railway reserve which Kep Track follows.

Railway Line

The original route of the Eastern Railway was largely determined by already-established sawmills.  When the line was officially opened on 11 March 1884 it went due east from Smiths Mill (now Glen Forrest) to the pit sawyers’ settlement of Sawyers Valley before turning sharp left to White’s Mill (now Mount Helena).

Wooden links

Kep Track deviates just east of the site of the former Mundaring railway station through a cutting to the site of the original train stop. The siding handled produce from a sawmill and Gugeri’s vineyard, later called Mundaring vineyard, south of the line. In the surrounding bush, pits used by pitsawyers to saw felled trees are still visible.

Crossing the line

You’ll be obliged to take great care when crossing Great Eastern Highway since the railway bridge was removed in 1960. Traffic on Great Eastern Highway used to pass under what was known as the ‘subway’. Five years after the line closed in 1955 it was removed to provide more headroom for road transport.

Settlements

This section of the track runs between the commercial hub of the hills and what was a ‘timber town’. You can get refreshments at both Mundaring and Sawyers Valley and you can take a longer break to visit the local museum and enjoy a heritage tour around Mundaring townsite.

Mundaring

Apart from pizza parlours, a bakery, supermarkets and a hotel, there are a number of coffee shops in the town. Mundaring Hotel was built by the same Jacoby brothers who built Mundaring Weir Hotel.  Information and brochures on the self-guided walk around Mundaring are available at the Visitors Centre situated in the old schoolhouse on Great Eastern Highway. The building also houses the local history museum.

Sawyers Valley

Apart from the Art Deco hotel there is a garage (for air in your bicycle tyres or refreshments) and a complex of different shops, selling all sorts of things from fresh produce to second-hand goods. Kep Track passes Sawyers Valley Primary School which has been in the same spot for more than 100 years as the quaint old school buildings will attest.