Boomi - The Artesian Bore

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

At the southern end of Bishop Street, drilling for water began in 1899, where diviners thought there would be an ample source of water under the surface. Before the establishment of the bore supply for the town water, a well was sunk in the Police Paddock on the Talwood road, north of the recreation ground and the racecourse. There were also a hundred gallon and a two hundred-gallon drinking tank, where the residents bucketed and carted their supplies for domestic use. The advent of the bore was a benefit to both stock and households, and it caused a lot of interest and job opportunities.

John T. Newman, Tom Keating, Alf Love and Peter Moree were some of the many workers who came and camped in their tents and huts in the paddock behind the drilling site, for the four years it took to complete the project. A steam engine was used to generate the power to work the drill boring the hole, connected by massive cable ropes. In the middle of proceedings, a drill broke and fell back down the shaft. A year was lost while every possible means was tried to retrieve the drilling bit.

It was feared a new bore might be needed, but this one had already been partly cased and it seemed worthwhile to recover the bit. In desperation a magnet was brought out from America, so after a very long wait it arrived, lifting the drill successfully, and the construction was in full operation once again.

It was carnival time on Thursday 28 May, 1903 when the Parliamentary party visited Boomi to make the official viewing of the flow from the artesian bore head. The children had the day away from school and everyone had a memorable time.

Artesian Bore Head
The Boomi Bore is 5,008 feet deep, with an output of 750,000 gallons of near-boiling water daily. It is a tribute to our pioneers who had the ingenuity to tap such a supply, because recent years proved the bore has not wavered much from the volume of that first day. The bore drain was made by first ripping the marked line with a horse-drawn plough and then following that with an arrow-shaped delver to make the trench. About every twelve months the drains had to be delved to keep them free of obstruction. It was poetry in motion, in my early years, to see a team of horses in formation on either bank pulling a shipless bow, as the delver moved along the drain, dredging the mud and reeds out, and with it came little fish and craybobs. How the fish first got into the drain or survived in the hot water is anyone's guess.

The bore drain flows west for half a mile to where the drain branches. At the mouth of the two flows it is governed by a regulator. Boards cover the floor of the drain at this part and as the water is still very warm it has always been a popular bathing place and natural spa.

Where the northern line of the drain flows on another half a mile, the water is piped along an open viaduct or trough over about fifty feet of low swamp. This is called the Fluming. The water is cool enough for the stock to drink approximately a mile from the bore head, then as the two flows move separately westward, it feeds ninety miles of bore drain, petering out at Booreeyamma.

In the early sixties, a company was in the area drilling for oil and a hole was put down on the Barnato-Kilenna boundary and in doing so, struck water. The bore was cased and cemented. Their big motorised engines were a far cry from the humble steam engines that did the same job so many years before. Twenty years later, the Council acquired the casement and piped the water supply to the residents of Boomi. This extra supply requires a hot water system because of the distance travelled, not as before, when the water came from the Boomi Bore and the bath was run in the afternoon to be cool for bathtime.

The Allen family had a bore dug at the house at Corenda and on striking water it proved to be more salty than the sea. Boomi must be sitting on an internal reservoir.

All historical information and B & W Pictures contained in this site are from the book UP ON THE BORDER BOOMI by Ellen Allen, published in 1988, and used with permission.

Kunopia - The Township Village of Boomi The Artesian Bore Boomi Post Office
Royal Hotel Pioneer Hotel Police Station Boomi Public School