Rivers in the Desert

On the parched Eastern Goldfields of West Australia during the 1890s, desperate shortages of drinking water led to the deaths by thirst of prospectors and killings among teamsters at scarce waterholes. Transporting water 400 miles from the coast by packhorse and train failed to meet demand, and the state government took the contentious decision to build a pipeline across the arid country; the longest pipeline ever built. This is the story of that undertaking.