Niagara Dam

Statement of Significance

The dam has historic significance as it was closely associated with the settlement and development of gold mining in Niagara district of the North Eastern Goldfields. It was evidence of the Government of the days determination to support the prospectors and the miners by tapping any potential source of potable water, no matter how unpredictable. The dam has rarity value as one of only a handful of such dams built in Western Australia.

Physical Description

The dam is sunk into the ground with a stone wall across its centre. The wall is reinforced with stone piers.

History

Niagara Dam is the third largest dam erected in Western Australia, after the Victoria and Mundaring dams; designed as a scaled-down replica of the Mundaring dam. Following an extensive tour of the Goldfields late in 1895, Premier Forrest was convinced that, notwithstanding intensive planning by Engineer-in-Chief C.Y. O'Connor and his officers for the proposed Coolgardie Goldfields Water Supply Scheme by pumping water from Mundaring, he also would take short term measures to immediately improve the water supplies. Other water supply works were what was referred to as 'the Premier's December Programme1. They included numerous bores and tanks. The largest individual work was the dam at Niagara. A contract for construction of a concrete dam was let on 20 January 1897 to H. Nelson. Construction was to take 12 months for an estimated £24,315. However, difficult foundation conditions helped to delay completion until well into 1898 and to inflate the cost to £42,000. The cement used for the construction was imported from overseas in wooden casks, railed to Menzies and then transported by camel teams to the site at Niagara. The PWD Annual Report for 1895-96 noted, "Niagara - 30,000,000 Gallon Reservoir. This is one of the few really good sites on the fields, the natural basin affording every advantage for the conservation of a great body of water. During the recent rain that fell at Niagara, 35,000,000 gallons were gauged as passing down the creek. Plans and estimates are nearly completed, and this will be one of the most interesting and important works, as well as probably the largest reservoir, on the whole of the fields." In 1897, the Coolgardie Miner reported: The Niagara dam is now rapidly approaching completion. A recent visitor to the scene describes the work in progress as astonishing. An enormous number of men are employed, and the whole locality presents an unusual air of bustle. To this work attention has lately been drawn by the visit of Mr O'Connor, the Engineer-in-Chief for Water Supply, whosemissionhasalreadybeenexplained. Thedam,whichissituatedsome2.5milessouthoftheNiagaratownship, is the most extensive project of the kind on the goldfields. It is placed in the course of a creek, and has an enormous catchment. Unlike most works of the kind a natural basin is being utilised, to improve which a huge concrete wall is being erected for some distance. The capacity of the dam will be 40,000,000 gallons. [Coolgardie Miner 07/12/1897, p.4] The dam has a wall 23ft. thick, 61ft. high over the foundations, and 570ft. long. It can hold 38,750,000 gallons fed from a 792-acre watershed. ... Water was precious in the 1890s when the dam was built. It was needed for the buildings that were going up at every new centre, for the prospectors and soon for the thirsty steam engines on the railway that was being built. It cost the infant State a sixth as much as Mundaring Weir, yet not a fraction of that amounthasbeenrecovered. SoonafterthedamwasbuiltabundantfreshwaterwasfoundatnearbyKookynie. And the railways ... decided it was more economical to draw water at Menzies. ... However, it is on record that a contract was let for £42,317/17/- and that construction began in 1896. Rumour has it that Premier John Forrest guided the scheme and that the dam was modelled on a less publicity-shy venture - Mundaring Weir. ... Until about 1916 a caretakercontrolledthestandpipebehindthedam,sellingbulksuppliesat1/9ahundredgallons. In1915thewater was gravity-fed along a three-mile pipeline to Jessop Siding. The pipeline may have been a last desperate attempt to employ the damwater. For by then, Niagara, whose thousands of residents had been the dam's main customers, was practically deserted. [Daily News 04/05/1961, p.20] The town's population is reputed to have reached 900, 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 water was discovered in Kookynie, only 7km away. The dam, which had been intended to be a source of potable water for the whole district, became little used. The area is now used for stock watering and as a picnic area. Little remains of the Niagara townsite.

Integrity/Authenticity

INTEGRITY: High Degree AUTHENTICITY: High Degree

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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