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The very low rainfall during the rainy season of 1901,
followed by a severe and prolonged drought, revealed the urgent
necessity of proceeding with further additions to the waterworks
of the city and, on the advice of the late Mr. Osbert Chadwick,
G.1.G., who visited the Colony in 1902, it was decided to
deveolope, to the fullest extent possible, the lower portion
of the Tytam Valley. In order to prepare an exhaustive scheme,
extensive surveys and investigations were necessary and, whilst
these were in progress, it was considered advisable to proceed
with the construction of a subsidiary reservoir and contingent
works, so arranged as to admit of their incorporation with the
future more extensive works contemplated. These subsidiary
works were begun in 1904 and completed in 1908 at a cost of
$896,140. They included the construction of a reservoir with a
capacity of fully 210 million gallons, the provision of a
pumping station containing two pumping engines, each capable
of raising 1 million gallons daily, the laying of 38 miles
of 18" mains and other considerable works. On their completion,
it was considered that the finances of the Colony did not permit
of the more extensive scheme contemplated being proceeded with
and the matter therefore remained in abeyance until November,
1913, when a contract for the execution of the works, whose
completion we to-day celebrate, was let.
The dam on which we stand is capable of impounding 1,419
million gallons, or nearly double the combined contents of all
the reservoirs previously constructed. Including the subsidiary
reservoir already mentioned, which was carried out as a prelimin-
ary part of the scheme, the storage capacity added since 1904
amounts to 1,629 million gallons or more than three times the
capacity of all the reservoirs then existing. These figures
will give you some idea of the enormous additions which have
been made to the water supply of the Oclony during recent years.
In addition to this great dam, the works just completod
include the provision of two pumping engines, each capable of
raising