Morgan Whyalla pipeline
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The Morgan – Whyalla pipeline was an engineering project undertaken by the South Australian Government in 1940 to bring water from Morgan on the River Murray to the industrial city of
Whyalla Whyalla was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Gawler and along with Port Pirie and Port Augusta i ...
. A second pipeline, by a divergent route, was laid in the 1960s.


History

In 1937
Premier of South Australia The premier of South Australia is the head of government in the state of South Australia, Australia. The Government of South Australia follows the Westminster system, with a Parliament of South Australia acting as the legislature. The premier is ...
Richard Butler negotiated with
BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...
to erect a blast furnace at Whyalla to process iron ore from
Iron Knob Iron Knob is a town in the Australian state of South Australia on the Eyre Peninsula immediately south of the Eyre Highway. At the 2006 census, Iron Knob and the surrounding area had a population of 199. The town obtained its name from its pro ...
using
brown coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
from Leigh Creek. Lack of sufficient fresh water was an obstacle, To this end Butler pushed through enabling legislation and sent engineers to
Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
to inspect their achievements in above-ground pipelines, notably the
Goldfields pipeline The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme is a pipeline and dam project that delivers potable water from Mundaring Weir in Perth to communities in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields, particularly Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. The project was commis ...
engineered by C. Y. O'Connor. In 1938 Premier Thomas Playford increased the demands on BHP, and came to an agreement with
Essington Lewis Essington Lewis, CH (13 January 18812 October 1961) was a prominent Australian industrialist. He was the Director-General of the Department of Munitions during World War II. Biography Early life Essington Lewis was born in Burra, South Aust ...
that if the company were to install a tinplate manufacturing plant, the State would supply the water infrastructure. Playford reckoned on the proposed pipeline also supplying the needs of
Commonwealth Railways The Commonwealth Railways were established in 1917 by the Government of Australia with the Commonwealth Railways Act to administer the Trans-Australia and Port Augusta to Darwin railways. It was absorbed into Australian National in 1975. O ...
at Port Augusta for their Trans Australian and Adelaide-Port Augusta railway lines. Prime Minister Lyons agreed to help South Australia with a development loan. In 1939 Lyons died and was replaced by Robert Menzies; shortly after,
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
broke out and Menzies joined with Britain in declaring war on Germany. Under the changed circumstances, Playford renegotiated the deal in terms of shipbuilding rather than tinplate manufacture. In 1940 the Commonwealth Water Agreement Ratification Act was passed, complementary legislation passed through South Australia's parliament and South Australia's Engineering and Water Supply Department was given the task of getting the job done, under considerable pressure from the War Department, and with reduced manpower and materials due to exigencies of wartime. The first stage, from Whyalla to the Baroota Reservoir, was rushed through to help supply water for shipping. The whole route, using continuously welded steel pipe (supplied by Hume Pipe Company), four pumping stations and 127 concrete storage tanks, was completed in 1944, just in time to alleviate a serious drought that had hit the
Mid North The Mid North is a region of South Australia, north of the Adelaide Plains and south of the Far North and the outback. It is generally accepted to extend from Spencer Gulf east to the Barrier Highway, including the coastal plain, the southern ...
of South Australia. The pipeline was officially opened by the Governor of South Australia, Sir Malcolm Barclay-Harvey in 1945. Originally, the only water treatment was filtering at the intake, which could leave the water looking milky due to suspended
colloidal A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a liquid, while others extend ...
clay. Over the years, the treatment processes have improved, with the Morgan Water treatment Plant opened in 1986. In 2016, water from the Morgan treatment plant was judged by the
Water Industry Operators Association of Australia Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a s ...
as the best tasting tap water in South Australia. Morgan won the award again in 2017. A further upgrade including larger storage and upgraded filtration and disinfection was conducted in 2018.


Description

Morgan is a town on the Murray near the point where the river changes its westerly course to almost due south. The pipeline begins at a pumping station upstream from Morgan at the most north-westerly point of the river. Here a large concrete chamber was constructed, the floor of which is below the river's low water level, and the walls of which rise to above the flood level. The chamber is somewhat elliptical in shape and is divided by a wall across the smaller diameter; one half housing the pumps and the other containing the screening machinery. The concrete walls of the chamber are over a metre thick to give it sufficient weight to prevent it floating during a flood. A control room above the chamber houses the switch board, instruments and a diesel stand-by generator. Water is drawn from the river and passed through rotary screens with a fine wire mesh of 200 openings to the inch (80 per cm). This was originally the only filtration and removed all solid matter except colloidal clay, which when present gave rise to a milky appearance. The water received no other treatment, and its salinity and hardness were less than that of Mundaring water which is used in the comparable
Goldfields pipeline The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme is a pipeline and dam project that delivers potable water from Mundaring Weir in Perth to communities in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields, particularly Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. The project was commis ...
. The
centrifugal pump Centrifugal pumps are used to transport fluids by the conversion of rotational kinetic energy to the hydrodynamic energy of the fluid flow. The rotational energy typically comes from an engine or electric motor. They are a sub-class of dynamic ...
s were driven by 400 h.p. (300 kW) electric motors, the power for which was originally supplied from the
Osborne Power Station The Osborne Power Station is located in Osborne, a northwestern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. Current Today's Osborne Power Station is natural gas powered with one gas turbine and one steam turbine that together generate 180 MW of ...
, and later from Port Augusta. Each pump station is now connected directly to the
ElectraNet Electranet is a proposed smart electric grid which would allow people to sell electricity into the grid without any artificial caps. It was proposed in an op-ed article Al Gore wrote in a "My Turn" column for ''Newsweek'' in 2006. Like the inter ...
transmission grid. The transformers were upgraded in 2015–2016. Each pumping station fills receiving tanks elevated by Each intermediate pump is at a lower elevation than the previous storage tank, so the centrifugal pumps run with a flooded inlet and do not require priming. The last pumping station near Robertstown operates into the
Hanson Hanson or Hansson may refer to: People * Hanson (surname) * Hansson (surname) * Hanson (wrestler), ringname of an American professional wrestler Musical groups * Hanson (band), an American pop rock band * Hanson (UK band), an English rock ...
storage tanks, which are above sea level and from Morgan. From Morgan to No. 4 pumping station the pipe passes through arid country; after that it passes through good agricultural land and thence through the
Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabit ...
at Hughes Gap. The pipe then follows the eastern side of Spencer Gulf to Port Augusta and after rounding the head of the gulf continues southward to Whyalla, again passing through arid country. The route was chosen to pass close to all the main reservoirs in the
Mid North The Mid North is a region of South Australia, north of the Adelaide Plains and south of the Far North and the outback. It is generally accepted to extend from Spencer Gulf east to the Barrier Highway, including the coastal plain, the southern ...
of South Australia, so that they could be supplied with River Murray water. From the
Hanson Hanson or Hansson may refer to: People * Hanson (surname) * Hansson (surname) * Hanson (wrestler), ringname of an American professional wrestler Musical groups * Hanson (band), an American pop rock band * Hanson (UK band), an English rock ...
tanks the water gravitates all the way to Whyalla, a distance of . The total length of the pipeline is and the pipes, which are of steel, concrete lined and protected against external corrosion by "galvanite", a proprietary zinc coating, vary in size from to . The South Australian engineers followed the practice of the Goldfields Water Supply in adopting continuous welding of the pipes. This was soon vindicated when floods hit Port Augusta and Whyalla, causing damage to roads, bridges and the pipeline. At one place, where the water had swept across the road and piled timber up against the pipeline a length of pipe 80 m. between concrete blocks had been bowed outward by over a metre, but had not broken. In another place an 80 m. length of pipe had been completely undermined, and the pipe had sagged about a metre, being dragged down by a large concrete block, weighing about three tonnes, which was left suspended. Close to the block the pipe had buckled, and twisted through 180 degrees without fracture. Two breaks had occurred in the pipeline during the flood, both at places where it was carried over creeks on concrete road bridges. These bridges had been undermined and swept away, carrying the pipe with them. Repairs were made as soon as the flood subsided, and the supply to Whyalla was restored within ten days. This article gives a series of interesting comparisons with the somewhat larger Goldfields scheme. Water from the Morgan water treatment plant supplies over 130,000 people across the
Mid North The Mid North is a region of South Australia, north of the Adelaide Plains and south of the Far North and the outback. It is generally accepted to extend from Spencer Gulf east to the Barrier Highway, including the coastal plain, the southern ...
region of South Australia from Burra and
Clare, South Australia The town of Clare is located in South Australia in the Mid North region, 136 km north of Adelaide. It gives its name to the Clare Valley wine and tourist region. At the , Clare itself had a population of 3160 as part of an urban area wit ...
across to central
Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named af ...
.


Solar power

Commencing in 2019, the pumping stations are being fitted with solar panel arrays to reduce the cost of pumping water. The first of these was commissioned at Pumping Station Number 3 near Geranium Plains. The second will be at Pumping Station number 4 near Robertstown. The ground under the solar panel arrays will be planted with native grasses and ground covers to suppress dust.


Related pipelines

A second Morgan–Whyalla pipeline was commenced in 1963 and completed in 1967. It was made considerably shorter by passing the last section under Spencer Gulf rather than around it. A similar project, the
Mannum–Adelaide pipeline The Mannum–Adelaide pipeline is a water pipeline in South Australia. It was the first major pipeline built from the River Murray to serve Adelaide. The pipeline project was started in 1949 and completed in March 1955. After suffering water re ...
, began in 1949 and was completed in 1955, just in time to avert a serious water shortage.


See also

*
Whyalla Steelworks The Whyalla Steelworks is a fully integrated steelworks and the only manufacturer of rail in Australia. Iron ore is mined in the Middleback Range to feed the steelworks, resulting in the distribution of finished steel products of over 90 different ...
*
SA Water SA Water is a government business enterprise wholly owned by the Government of South Australia. History SA Water was established by the proclamation of the ''South Australian Water Corporation Act 1994'' on 1 July 1995. Prior to this its predec ...
*
Mannum–Adelaide pipeline The Mannum–Adelaide pipeline is a water pipeline in South Australia. It was the first major pipeline built from the River Murray to serve Adelaide. The pipeline project was started in 1949 and completed in March 1955. After suffering water re ...


References


Sources

* Hammerton, Marianne ''Water South Australia'' Wakefield Press, Adelaide 1986 {{pipelines in South Australia Freshwater pipelines 1944 establishments in Australia Whyalla Economic history of South Australia Pipelines in South Australia