Walka Water Works
The first European settlers of Maitland and surrounding areas relied for their water supply on creeks and lagoons, just as the Wonnarua people had for millennia. Eventually, private wells were dug and rainwater tanks installed next to houses and other buildings. In Newcastle, springs were tapped as well. Only from the late 1880s was water supplied to Maitland from a purpose-built plant drawing from the Hunter River.
The growth of the population of the lower Hunter Valley had by this time come to necessitate a large-scale public water reticulation scheme supplying the whole Maitland-Newcastle area. Health considerations, including concerns about death rates from typhoid, diphtheria and dysentery, were also involved and indeed loomed large in the decision making: in Newcastle, leaching from bodies buried on the high ground of The Hill was polluting wells on the land below. The proximity of wells to out-house cesspits also posed serious health problems, as it did in the Maitland area.
Origins and operation
The scheme that was to be developed was the Walka Water Works at Scobies Lane, Oakhampton Heights. William Clark, a British hydraulic engineer, was asked in 1877 by the colonial government to recommend on a major water supply scheme for the lower Hunter. Clark’s advice was for a tunnel to draw water from the river at Dickson’s Falls (Bolwarra) just above tidal influence, a large reservoir above the reach of floods, filter beds and clear-water tanks, pumping stations (to force water from the river and from Walka to reservoirs at Buttai and East Maitland), and engine and boiler houses. There were to be other reservoirs further downstream: eventually these were located at Minmi, Wallsend, Lambton, Hamilton and Newcastle.
Upstream of the intake, polluting activities such as a piggery and a slaughterhouse had to be closed down to ensure that the river contained relatively clean water.
Original plan showing the scheme from William Clark’s report to the NSW Government, 1877
The Works, completed in 1887, could supply water to a population of 37,000 down to Newcastle. East Maitland and Morpeth first received Walka water in 1888.
left: Pumphouse and chimney
right: Boilers at the Walka Water Works, c1898
click on above images for larger views
Droughts during the first decade of the twentieth century demonstrated that the Hunter as a source of water was unreliable and thus by itself inadequate. At one stage, in 1906, the Oakhampton reach of the river actually ceased flowing below the Walka intake, requiring the construction of a temporary dam to husband the limited flow to the intake point. A similar dam had been necessary a few years earlier because of low flows. Flooding had proved problematic, too, the disastrous flood of 1893 damaging the intake structures of the scheme, breaking reticulation mains and exposing sections of pipe.
Moreover population growth was outstripping the capacity of the works to supply Newcastle which was growing steadily thanks to the mining and shipping of coal and the development of copper and iron smelting and other industries. These had been attracted to the area by its coal, as was BHP’s large steel-manufacturing complex which was established in 1915. The population of Newcastle and its suburbs west to Minmi had grown from about 20,000 in the mid-1870s to 54,000 in 1901 and it was to reach roughly 90,000 by 1924. Between 1892 and 1900, water consumption in the Newcastle region doubled and there were concerns about inevitable further increases in demand when a modern, large-scale sewerage scheme was developed.
Additional sources of water were needed for the lower Hunter Valley. Chichester Dam, built on a tributary of the Williams River above Dungog and tapping runoff from the Barrington Tops and the Mount Royal Range, became the principal source of the region’s water and from 1923 onwards Walka was used only intermittently as a back-up facility. The Tomago Sandbeds later became another source of water for Newcastle, as did the Grahamstown Water Supply Scheme from the late 1950s.
Closure and re-use
The Walka works were eventually shut down and in 1949 its plant and machinery were sold for scrap. Two years later, because of power shortages, the site was re-opened on a temporary basis for the production by the New South Wales Electricity Commission of power from coal and oil. As large coal-fired power stations were commissioned elsewhere in the state over following years, Walka became redundant and its power plant was decommissioned in 1978.
Walka is a fine example of nineteenth-century industrial engineering. No longer needed for the infrastructural purposes to which they had been put, the installations became part of the Walka Recreation and Wildlife Reserve managed by the Maitland City Council and the Walka Water Works Trust. The complex was classified by the National Trust in 1976 and given state heritage listing in 1999. The area became a popular recreation and picnic locality, with much bird life in evidence - more than 140 species of birds have been recorded there - and a network of walking tracks around the reservoir.
Walka Water Works and Walka Lake from the air
(Maitland City Council reproduced by Ramboll)
The current situation
There are plans to partially restore the still-existing 1887 pumphouse building with its tall chimney and ornate pink and cream brickwork as well as to enhance its potential to host functions such as weddings. Accommodation in the form of cabins and space for caravans is also envisaged. A state government grant of $15 million has been obtained by the council to carry out the work needed to bring these aims to fruition.
The proposal is controversial, however, with considerable community concern about interfering with the current vegetation assemblage and the habitat it provides.
References
Armstrong, JW, Pipelines and People: the Hunter District Water Board, Halstead Press, Sydney, 1967.
Keys, Chas ‘Our past: Walka Water Works came on tap in 1888’, Maitland Mercury, 6 October 2023.
Learn about Walka Water Works, Maitland City Council.
Walka Water Works, NSW State Heritage Inventory, Item 5045638.
