Proto-Pumping Station
Ipswich had no mountains on which to build the usual type of water supply ...
You could be excused for thinking that Mount Crosby pumping station was the first to pump water from the Brisbane River to a man-made reservoir but, actually, the Ipswich City Council pioneered this type of supply system 1878, when they constructed the Kholo pumping station on the Brisbane River at what is today's Kholo Botanical Gardens.
At first, the concept of pumping water from the river to an artificial reservoir on top of a hill, so that it could gravitate to customers without further pumping, was criticised as over-complicated and an outrageous waste of energy, but Ipswich had no mountains on which to build the usual type of supply, which was a dam in the mountains to collect clear water that could flow to the city without pumping.
After exploiting Enoggera Creek (1864) and Gold Creek (1885) with dams in the same old way, the Brisbane Board of Waterworks found that it, too, was short of suitable mountain locations - and their next option was to go further west and build the Mount Crosby pumping station.
The Kholo pumping station wasn't exactly a roaring success – it was undersized and clunky on account of a shortage of dollar-bucks, but it was prescient and gave everyone a glimpse of the future.
Fourteen years later, the problems experienced at Kholo were avoided when the Mount Crosby pumping station was constructed on a much larger and more durable scale. By 1922, the Mount Crosby station supplanted the Kholo pumping station as the source of supply for Ipswich.
As an interesting sideline, the trees planted at the Kholo Gardens at the time pumping commenced (1878) are, of course, now 146 years old. They form the most eye-catching features of the botanical gardens and include some very large hoop pines and Queensland kauri.
They definitely make Kholo Gardens a worthy destination for a weekend picnic and game of cricket.
