Deep Well Hand Pumps

Plans in place to uncover garden history in Warrnambool

From 1883 it supplied water pumped up by a wooden windmill to irrigate the extensive gardens until replaced by a bore.

It was dug by hand in an era when there were up to 100 wells scattered around the town.

Now there’s a derelict shed and a tangle of creeper over the 15-metre deep circular well.

Friends of Warrnambool Botanic Gardens members have come up with a plan to turn it into a feature piece of the heritage-listed gardens and are calling for ideas on how to safely restore the well and install another windmill.

Group secretary Mandy King said a perspex cover or similar material could by placed over the top, with lighting down the shaft.

“We need a guesstimate of the cost as it will be part of an application for heritage grants,” she said.

“Any information on early wooden windmills would be much appreciated.”

Two old photographs found in the city archives show what the installation looked like in the 1800s.

Ms King said the well could be incorporated into the waterwise garden section that was started two years ago in conjunction with Wannon Water to demonstrate the variety of drought-resistant plants.

“We would make the well a feature and show how things used to be,” she said.

“With appropriate signs this will be a working demonstration on the history of our water supply and an explanation of the significance of this increasingly valuable natural resource.”

Records show the town council had a 24-metre deep well dug at Cannon Hill for the first public water supply and followed with wells in the gardens, Albert Park and the cattle market on Raglan Parade.

It is believed the windmills used to pump from the supply were made by John Esam who operated a business on Koroit Street on the site of what is now the Uniting Church.

The design was similar to a mill used at Lyndoch in the 1800s.

Deep Well Hand Pump

We want to know that we can pump emergency water in case there is a long power outage or EOTW scenario. One of the problems I can see with our plan is that the hand pump installs directly on the well head, which is in our front yard and is visible from the road...which I don't like. But I can't change that other than to plant more trees for privacy (in the process of doing that anyway). We thought about drilling another well, which would be very costly and in the back yard is the septic system...which precludes drilling a well anywhere near that. So we want to make the best of what we have. Look into "Bison" hand pumps they are stainless steel and are supposed to be great-I have my eye on one and they are a bit cheaper... I think you should shop around a bit. They have one that goes right in with your electric well pump too.. Lucky me when we bought this home they had to put in a well that was farther away form the septic(which is stupid cuz it is all going to the same water source) and I have another well that we can use solely for the pump... for my depth of water 125 or so feet down I can get a well pump and all the pipes that goes with it for about $1600. Thinking about talking my mom out of that as a loan.. that way when we lose power (like we did this morning for a few hours and we do quite often here) I will still have water. Get a roll of string and something to weight it so you can lower it in the hole. You may tie a knot in it every 5' to 10'. If you can see the water, you will be able to see when the end touches then measure and see how deep your water is. If you cant see the water, let out the string 100 ft or so. pull it up and find where the string is wet. subtract that distance from the end and there you have how far down your water is.

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