Water, Water Nowhere -and not a drop to drink

This is typical of the scenes at many mines in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. At the time the above photograph was taken – water rations were connected with employment conditions at many mines. Workers on some goldfields were entitled to condensed water as part of their wages, receiving 2 or 4 gallons (9 or 18 L) per day or at least ‘a water bag full’, while others received extra money as a ‘water allowance’. Mines often had their own condensers to convert saline groundwater into fresh water, groundwater, which seeped in when shafts were sunk, could hinder mining operations, and the shortage of fresh water hindered processing, so condensing gave a double benefit.

The photograph shows miners queuing to collect their ration of condensed water – the condenser process involved the boiling of saline groundwater until it changed from a liquid to a gas. The steam rose through the pipe at the top of the boiler and, as it travelled through the pipe, further from the fire, it cooled and changed back into a liquid; the result was water pure enough to drink.

Men had to queue for whatever quantity of scarce (and expensive) fresh water was available – water was such an issue that it became the focus of industrial action. At one mine men went on strike when management gave them a gallon a day (4.5 L) instead of an allowance to buy water themselves (when water was cheap they profited from the allowance), and at another, miners demanded an increase to 2 gallons a day free until a pipeline bringing supplies from a dam in the hills outside Perth was opened in January 1903 the cost and shortage of water continued to be a problem.

The tins some men carrying in this photo are steel (‘tin’) drums that could hold up to 4 gallons (18 L) of water – the tins were originally used to carry kerosene, a fuel used in lamps to provide light; for carrying water, the top of a tin was cut off and a wire handle fastened to it so it could be easily carried in one hand; the taste of kerosene was said to persist for a long time.

It is evidence of the value of water in WA’s Eastern Goldfields – without money or the regular supply of fresh water, people could die of thirst; in a letter dated 23 October 1893, J E Burbanks wrote about the situation after four months of no rain, ‘God help the poor unfortunates who are without the means of purchasing the precious element [water]. Two men who were camped near me died of thirst, and two others went mad; one shot himself’.

It is part of the historical record of the Goldfields collected by George Spencer Compton who may have taken this photograph – he wrote the information about where the photograph was taken and details about the practice of paying miners with water in lieu of wages on the back of the photograph; Spencer Compton is sometimes described as the pioneer goldfields historian and writer.

This article is courtesy of:- National Trust of Australia (Western Australia), Learning Federation