Niagara Dam

Statement of Significance

105 Historic Importance This was only the second large public water supply dam constructed in the State and the first significant dam designed by the Public Works Department. 106 Recreational & Tourism Importance. The Niagara Dam has been described as one of the curiosities of the Goldfields. In hindsight it seems to have been wildly ambitious for a new and practically untried mining district. Accessible from the Menzies to Kookynie road/ the site has considerable tourism potential and is an acknowledged picnic spot in the right season. On the rare occasions that the reservoir fills/ it can be a quite remarkable sight for the traveller to see such a body of water in such dry and barren surroundings. 222 Historical significance The dam was closely associated with settlement and the development of gold mining in the Niagara district of the North Eastern Goldfields. It was evidence of the Government of the day's determination to support the prospectors and the miners by tapping any potential source of potable water, no matter how unpredictable. It was built when fresh water was "as precious as gold" and was desperately needed for steam locomotives on the rapidly expanding railways as well as for the mining settlements and the prospectors.

History

Assessment 1999 Following an extensive tour of the Goldfields late in 1895 Premier Forrest was convinced that/ notwithstanding intensive planning by Engineer-in-Chief 0'Connor and his officers for the proposed Coolgardie Goldfields water supply scheme by pumping from Mundaring/ he also needed to take short term measures to immediately improve the water supplies. Other water supply works were pursued in what was referred to as "the Premier's December Programme". They included numerous bores and tanks. The largest individual work was the dam at Niagara, which resulted in a 39 million gallon (141,000 cubic metres) reservoir/ described by the Public Works Department as "one of the most interesting and important works/ as well as probably the largest reservoir, on the whole of the fields." A contract for construction of a concrete dam was let on 20.1.1897 to H. Nelson. Construction was to take twelve months for an estimated 24/315 pounds. However/ difficult foundation conditions helped to delay completion until well into 1898 and to inflate the cost to over 42/000 pounds. The cement used for construction was imported from overseas in t wooden casks, railed to Coolgardie and then transported by camel teams to the site at Niagara. The history of Niagara town itself was fleeting and continually overshadowed by neighbouring Kookynie. The gold finds at Niagara proved to be mostly alluvial and only in shallow deposits. The first mining lease in the Niagara District was obtained in January 1899; a State Battery and cyanide plant was opened near Niagara late in 1900. The town's population is reputed to have reached 900 at its peak, but by 1903 had fallen to 75 people. Flows into Niagara Dam were infrequent and unreliable. Shortly after its completion a permanent supply of fresh underground water was discovered at Kookynie, only seven kilometres away. The dam, which had been intended to be a source of potable water for the whole district/ became little used. It is nowadays used for stock watering. Little remains of Niagara townsite.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update