Merroe Bore (a.k.a Merroe Dam)
From time to time, I go back and check some of my old pictures. Pictures I took many years ago. I have been taking pictures since I was about 12 when my parents (probably actually my Mum as my Dad hated spending money) got me a Kodak Box Brownie—which I still have here somewhere.
As I was clicking through my Lightroom library I came across some pictures I took of a place I have been to three times. I know this place as Merroe Bore (pronounced: mer-roe-ee) and this is how everyone I knew back then referred to it. But I have heard it referred to by some people from back then as Merroe Dam, Merroe Spring, and Merroe Well.
When I came across these pictures I decided to do a search on the Web for Merroe Bore and find out a bit more about it. To my complete surprise none of the major search engines found anything relating to Merroe Bore.
Not to be deterred, I decided to search Trove. For those not familiar with this awesome research resource, Trove contains OCR (text searchable) scans of old newspapers going back to about the 1830s. However, even a search of Trove did not find any references in the old newspapers to Merroe Bore or Merroe Dam or Merroe Well. Out of desperation I just did a search for “Merroe” in any Western Australian newspaper. Still nothing related to Merroe Bore was found.
It was about at this stage I decided to fix this complete lack of information on the Internet about Merroe Bore and cobble together this short article along with some of my old photographs.
Merroe, as shown on most maps, is a locality about 20 kilometres NNE of Mount Magnet in Western Australian. The somewhat famous Perth to Wiluna passenger train used to pass through Merroe. Sadly that line has been pulled up. It was pulled up sometime between 1983 and 1999—probably closer to 1999.
Before there was a railway line going through Merroe there was a camel track that went from Mount Magnet up to Cue. Before cars and the railway line almost all freight between Mount Magnet and Cue was moved by camels or horses along this trail going via Merroe.
Camels and horses need water.
As it happened there was, and possibly still is, a useful spring in the country west of Merroe. This semi-reliable spring wound its way along a rocky outcrop and then down to a small creek in the sand below. Along its way this little stream of water came over a bit of waterfall. Sometime around the mid- to late-1980s a manmade rock and clay wall was constructed at this location which created a small dam. During rainy periods this small dam would be full of water and even when there was no rain it still contained water due to the slow spring feeding it.
This dam, known in my day back then as Merroe Dam by everyone I knew, was a major watering stop for the camel and horse drawn freight convoys moving between Mount Magnet and Cue.
When a sheep station was established in the area a well was put down along the creek fed by the overflowing dam and the spring. The well was known as Merroe Well.
Following are some pictures I have of Merroe Bore/Merroe Dam.
These pictures are all from scanned 35mm slides and some colour correction has been required. Anyone who has scanned old slides will know that they tend to have a heavy magenta cast because of the aging of the dyes.
The following picture, which I have marked as being taken in March of 1983, shows the dam from below the rocky outcrop. You can just make out muddy water in the small dam under the branches of the tree on the left hand side.
This next picture shows where the spring goes over the rock into the manmade dam. You can make out the gap in the rocks where dam was made. The spring, when flowing (which is wasn’t in March 83), comes down from the left hand side where you can see those few weeds growing.
Off to the right through the branches of the tree you can just make out the sandy ‘lowlands’ below the rocky outcrop.
In the following picture is the dam taken from the top of the rocky outcrop. You can make out the rock and clay wall near the tree and also the small creek or wash going off to the left at the back of the dam.
The following picture provides a closer picture of the dam and I have just realised I caught a Dragonfly in the shot.
Just because I took it back then in March of ‘83 I thought I would share this shot following as well.
Back in my day in order to get to Merroe Dam (a.k.a. Merroe Dam) you had to cross over this railway line. This line was gone in 1999 when I went back there.
This is what the famous Perth to Wiluna railway line looked like in March of 1983. Don’t be too critical of the quality of the picture. Remember, this is a scan of a 35mm slide that was taken about 37 years ago.
All the pictures above are from my March 1983 trip.
The picture at right, still an edited scan from a slide, is from a trip I did back there in 1999—being 16 years later. As you can see, the dam was dry. It could be that the dam wall no longer holds water. I suspect this is the case as nobody would be bothering to maintain it.
On the 1999 trip I actually found it harder to find the way to Merroe. The railway line had gone, so I didn’t have that to use as a guide. Also the road from Mount Magnet to Cue had been slightly re-aligned—which didn’t help any.
Note: All pictures are 2,200 pixels on the longest side. Click on pictures to see them full sized on your display.