Western Australia has begun a $543 million renewal of 44.5 kilometres of its 566-kilometre pipeline, with the first additional water deliveries to the Goldfields expected from 2027.
Work has started on the Perth-to-Kalgoorlie pipeline, one of Western Australia’s oldest operating infrastructure projects. About 44.5 kilometres of the 566-kilometre line will be replaced, increasing its capacity by 10 per cent. The $543 million project will also double the Binduli Reservoir’s capacity from 400 million litres to 800 million.
Water demand in the Goldfields has risen 16 per cent in five years. Kalgoorlie’s mining sector is constrained by a lack of commercial water supply because the existing pipeline carries drinking water only. Many businesses pump groundwater, which is six times as salty as seawater.
Water Minister Daniel Pastorelli said the works would enable an additional 7.2 million litres to flow into the Goldfields each day from 2027. The replacement section will pass through the shires of Westonia, Merredin and Yilgarn, with much of it buried. The pipes are being made and delivered locally and are expected to last up to 150 years, Pastorelli said.
The pipeline was conceived by Western Australia’s first engineer-in-chief, Charles Yelverton O’Connor. Construction began in the late 1890s after gold was discovered in the region, and the line was completed in 1903. O’Connor died by suicide at South Beach in Fremantle three weeks before the first pumping station began operating, during a royal commission inquiry into the project.
Premier Roger Cook said the upgrade is the first of further stages to be announced. The government considered pumping desalinated water from Esperance to the Goldfields, but decided upgrading the Perth pipeline was the better investment. Cook said a desalination plant would still be needed in the future.