Bundaleer. Memorial to Balan School site. Behind these hill the Wheal Sarah Copper Mining Company operated from 1859 to 1861. : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Bundaleer. Memorial to Balan School site. Behind these hill the Wheal Sarah Copper Mining Company operated from 1859 to 1861. / denisbin
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示-改変禁止 2.1 |
|---|---|
| 説明 | Near the Bundaleer station homestead is the Bundaleer Reservoir. The reservoir was built between 1898 and 1903 to provide water for Port Pirie, Snowtown, Brinkworth, Blyth etc. It is a simple earth wall reservoir but its construction made it one of the engineering feats of Australia and it is listed as the seventh engineering achievement of Australia! Planning work began in 1891 but the ground work only commenced in 1898. Unlike other reservoirs it is not located on a river or creek and it is not located in steep terrain with gorges etc. It receives water from concreted channels which cover over 30 kms bringing water from the Broughton River, Bundaleer Creek and Never Never Creek. All the water reaches the reservoir using natural slopes and gravity without pumps. To achieve this one major aqueduct was erected across one creek and sometimes the concrete water channels become tunnels when they go under hills. Unfortunately these engineering marvels are no longer used. Once the Morgan to Whyalla Murray River pipeline passed the reservoir in 1944 water was then pumped into the reservoir from the Murray. The amazing aqueduct now leaks water when rainfall fills the channels. Bundaleer received quite a bit of press notice during construction because in the early days a major embankment collapse was a disaster. In Friday 25th May 1899 the accident happened and five men were killed - Patrick McGrath, William Larkin, James Crotty, W Hamilton and William Ahearn and three other men were seriously injured. All were young and probably family men. Despite this accident worked proceeded and the camp director C. S. Mann later reported that it was an unpopular place to work because of its isolation but the main ones complaining at conditions at the camp were the duffers and agitators not the good workers. About 500 men worked with picks and shovels on the dam construction at any one time. Mr Mann was the engineer in chief who designed the reservoir and aqueduct and channels. He was also the architect of the Happy Valley reservoir system which linked the weir on the Onkaparinga River at Clarendon to the reservoir at Happy Valley many miles away beyond a range of hills. The steel aqueduct was started in 1900. £12,000 was spent on the aqueduct and the concrete channels but of this amount £8,000 was for the aqueduct alone. It carried and still carries water from Bundaleer Creek to the reservoir. It is 500 feet long (152 metres) and 50 feet high (52 metres). The reservoir embankment was 80 feet high (25 metres), 400 feet thick (122 metres) and 1,100 feet (335 metres) long. The Governor visited the aqueduct and the reservoir on its opening in October 1903. Meantime worked was under way to lay pipes to the main towns that were going to receive reticulated water for the first time. The main pipeline ascended the Hummock Ranges beyond Snowtown and joined the Beetaloo Reservoir to Moonta pipeline at Keilli near Mundoora. The total cost of the reservoir, earthworks, aqueduct, channels and pipelines was around £599,000 with £220,000 spent on the reservoir and associated drainage works. Near the Bundaleer Creek aqueduct as some signs of old mining on the eastern hills. Three lodes of good quality copper were discovered here in 1858 and a group of men from Burra set up the Wheal Sarah Mining Company. Shafts up to 200 feet deep were sunk and thirty three tons of copper were extracted by May 1859 with the ore being about 60% pure copper. The mine operated only from 1859 to 1861 as the copper deposits were not extensive enough to be viable after the early success. Yet a new company was formed to rework the mines and shafts in 1909 but it had no success and ceased operation in 1912. |
| 撮影日 | 2016-09-20 13:46:51 |
| 撮影者 | denisbin |
| タグ | |
| 撮影地 | |
| カメラ | DSC-HX30V , SONY |
| 露出 | 0.001 sec (1/800) |
| 開放F値 | f/4.0 |