Karalee Rock Dam, Precious water in WA Goldfields

"We need water!" was the cry in the late 1800's as the Goldfields of Western Australia expanded due to the gold rush and the Government Railway that was being built to service the region. Once the railway was built, the steam trains using the railway would also need a continued supply of water, so, Karalee Dam was built using the natural water collection abilities of Karalee Rock, found north east of the town of Yellowdine.
Karalee Dam was built between 1897-97, has a capacity of ~ 38 million lts and is 8 mts deep. You can't help but notice the large flume which carries water from the base of Karalee Rock to Karalee Dam. There was also a pub at the railway siding which was de-licenced in 1971 however it has since been burnt down by vandals. In 2001 Karalee Dam was added to Western Australia's Register of Heritiage Places and it's maintained by the National Trust.
Today, Karalee Dam is used by campers and picnickers who enjoy the beautiful shade, fire pits, picnic tables, birdlife, wildflowers (in season) and walking tracks offered. Previously there was a toilet and waste dump point however we noticed on this visit these have been de-commissioned.
We pulled in to Karalee Rock Dam for the night, late in the afternoon and the first thing we noticed was how full the dam was, more than our previous visits. Tea time was an interesting experience. Chops were on the menu and we expected a kookaburra or two however this wasn’t the case. Instead, we dined with half a dozen butcher birds, 3 magpies with a currawong in the waiting. The butcher birds were very cheeky, walking right up to our plates and helping themselves. The magpies were more polite and waited for us to finish before accepting our leftovers all the while the currawong watched from a distance.
It is not our normal practice to feed birds/animals, but as these birds where used to humans and the amount of food taken was miniscule we relented this time.
Karalee Dam is a nice spot to spend the night.
From Stories in the Pipeline(www.watercorpo...
"Karalee Rock was a major Aboriginal water farm where a gutter carved around the base of the
rock diverted water into a number of soaks. This site was permanently modified during the late 1880s and early 1890s as part of the construction of the Government railway, with vast sections of the rock cut to create a larger channel which diverted greater quantities of water through an overland flume and into a railway storage dam. Not only did this modification damage the traditional Karalee Rock water farm, it also caused soaks fed by the Rock to dry up, ‘and the jila left’."
Karalee Rock Dam is on the traditional lands of the Kaprun (Gubrun) people
Take nothing but photos/video,
Leave nothing but footprints and
Kill nothing but time.
If you like this video please click Like and why not Subscribe to be advised of more videos.
Thank You for watching.
This video was filmed in 4K with a Mavic 3 Pro
Chapters
0:21 - Karalee Rock
0:46 - The flume
1:07 - Karalee Rock Dam