Upper Gascoyne

We were shown where (most of) the Wells are located with a suggestion to check in on them every couple of days.
It has developed into a mostly daily jaunt. 150k in total composed of 52k on bitumen, 26k of 4x4track and 72k of gravel.
Coongan well has been our nemesis. It has a windmill feeding an old leaking and many times repaired steel tank. Also a pump driven by a petrol generator which pumps into a new Polly tank. From here, into two feed troughs.
The Coongan area has terrific feed and lots of cows, but the water is not abundant and only at 16-19 meters deep. So if the wind don’t blow the steel tank don’t fill. The generator is connected to the Polly tank and has fuel for ~10 hours but if it runs too long/fast it will “fork the well”.
There is either not enough water or too many cows. Either way we are visiting daily to juggle the supply to the troughs.
Eventually we had an enough is enough conversation with the owners. “Get some water delivered to Coongan.” Sounds simple but the truck connected to the water trailer is broken down in a paddock nearby. Abundant water is available at CLV1 bore (240m deep and enough water to supply the nearby town of Gascoyne Junction.

The most distant well is West Tank (45k each way). It is solar powered and we usually see about 80 cows here. On an afternoon visit we find that the cattle have broken the piping the trough. They now have a very muddy lake and the tank is empty. On this visits there is 140 of the big, fat, thirsty buggers and they are all bleating “we are beautiful shiny cows, we don’t drink muddy water! Person, we want a drink now! Moooo”
We have never laid & connected Polly piping, but can now tick that box.Read more