Bourke Shire Emergency Pipeline to Bourke

The township of Bourke in far west NSW has an annual rainfall of 200mm and water is a valuable and scarce commodity.

In the midst of a drought the Bourke township was rapidly running out of water as the town weir pool dried up. There was not enough capacity from the existing pipeline to meet basic demands of the township.

Darling Irrigation were engaged by Bourke Shire Council to duplicate the existing pipeline from the Walkden Bore Primary Treatment plant into the Bourke township water treatment plant.

The job involved designing, tendering and constructing 17.5km of 200mm water pipeline from the Walkden Bore site following the Hungerford Road into North Bourke, turning down River Road, then tracking through the Heritage Maritime Park to the Town water treatment plant.

Some of the challenges included rock, working through aboriginal heritage areas and digging beside existing water pipelines.

Under boring the roads and river also proved difficult, with the soil very hard under the roads due to lack of moisture and then collapsing. The river crossing was equally challenging with soft mud encounter far deeper than expected from previous experiences.

Darling Irrigation completed the project on time and on budget.