Canning Stock Route Well 18 refurbishment

Hi Dunc,
Everything went okay.

The digger was brilliant without it we would have taken about two more days to complete the refurb work and there would have been more grunt and more risk of injury.

Ellenby Tree Farms - thankyou so much for loaning your digger and driver.

Thanks Rainman.
Was trying to remember what it was like. Would have to trawl through too many photos!
Cheers

Hi Ron
I had not seen plastic sleepers before this job either - yes they are more durable than wood termite wise.

When approval was sought from Traditional Owners to refurb the well - approval was given as long as plastic wasn't used for well decking. So timber it was. Not sure why jarrah in particular.

When W18 was refurbished by Canning in 1931 he recorded the water was excellent, the well being 16 feet deep, with 1,275 gallons storage and a supply of 48,000 gallons per day - so it was a good well for the drovers.

Before digging this well Canning's men sank a bore at this site to prove there was water and of good quality. They had put one down NE and only some 2.5 miles away and it was salt.

Eyes glued shut - what a scary result - glad they recovered.

Interesting. I'm surprised that Jarrah was chosen, Wandoo would have been a better choice for long-term durability.

48,000 gallons is 218,208 litres a day! 9000 litres an hour! That's a darn good supply of water and shows a sizeable aquifer.

It would be rather unusual for a bore to produce salt water in that region. It's common closer to the coast and in the wheatbelt, which is notorious for salt water in every second bore.

Dad always said there was oceans of water in the interior, and a lot at shallow depths.
However, he found that heavy mineralisation was much more common than salt in the bores he sunk.

I'm not sure how many bores he had to abandon, but I don't think it was too many.
He was very good at finding water in new country and often advised numerous people where they could find good water on their properties.

He ranged well out past Lake Nabberu, which he said was a beautiful, large, deep lake in the mid-1930's. I think the big cyclonic rains of March 1934 through the Murchison might have filled it.

He said he watched amazed at a billabong somewhere around Doolgunna, as the tribal Aboriginals made a raft out of paperbark, put a piccaninny on the raft, and then pushed the raft out onto the lake - at the same time as they spread out abreast in a line behind the raft, beating and slapping the water.

As they slapped the water, fish jumped out of the lake by the dozen - and the picanninnys job was to grab or smack the fish down, so they landed on the raft!

Dad said within a short time, the raft had a sizeable catch on board, and the Abo's retired to a good fish feed!

Cheers, Ron.

Actually not too surprised. Well 18 isn't that far from Lake Dissapointment and the Savoury Creek basin.

how do we find the facebook page please?

For the CSR facebook page go to Here

Hi Paul
All timber was termite damaged, some fell apart as we tried to remove it. That closer to the water fared better termite wise but was still damaged.

It was burned as firewood or taken right away from the well so as not to provide 'termite tucker'.

What I did notice was that most of the old sleepers were jarrah a few were heavy as and probably wandoo - made no difference to the termites though just a variation in diet to them.

Thanks Phil,

A pity about the deterioration. They could have been made into nice mementos.
Good job though, and very satisfying I'm sure.

Paul

Agreed they were just too far gone - some were only the outer surface giving the appearance of a good sleeper - but inside almost nothing.

We relined to all but one layer of the previous timbers. If we had gone one more we would have had a lower well surround increasing risk of inundation should very heavy rains fall.

Fortunately that row of sleepers was in excellent condition becasue it was below the water line.

below the sleepers it was sold calcrete and very very hard - Cannings men with their simple tools would have had a devil of a time getting thru it. They did had explosives - I'm not sure if they were used here

.

You left the last row of sleepers, was that because you didn't have enough new ones to replace that layer?

I echo your sentiments Warrie. I am really happy that Well 18 has been restored just not sure why others are ignored into oblivion whilst wells like Well 12 are restored regularly despite having good access to water. Some gaps between water are almost 200km.

Suspect there's a number of reasons.....

Firstly, some of the wells were barely adequate water quality in the first place and aren't suitable for restoration

Secondly, there is a heritage / historical concern for retaining some of the wells 'as is' for posterity. It was never the intention to restore or replace all of them

Can't agree with your assumptions Scott :-)

Restored Well 3 has got the worst quality water of all the restorations, but that one is maintained. Even I won't drink from it if the creek has water as an alternative.

Well 36 I drink from often without treating. It has fantastic water, near the surface, but is not restored. I don't understand this one at all. Soon it will cave in and that good water source will be lost.

Well 27 is now lost. In 2013 it had water. In 2015 it was partly filled in and dry, like so many of the northern wells.

Well 42 has fantastic water one foot from the surface. The whip pole has now collapsed and there is almost nothing left to reflect history.

Well 30 has great water 3m from the surface. But has been left to fill in, with only a few scatted bits of metal to remember its history by.

Well 16 has great water that just needs to be drawn more often to clear the stale smell. But the sides of that well are so unstable that drawing water from it is dangerous. Very soon that water source will be gone too.

All of Canning's wells had water. The problem was they could not be relied on to supply enough for 800 cattle. Tourists will have just plenty.

I asked Phil once why more southern wells were restored leaving such big gaps of neglect in the north and he said (if I remember correctly) that it was logistical. The further away from Perth the more costly, timely and whatever else.