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doing to rectify the situation. 'The well, as a Public Watering Place, is so
notoriously bad that it is out of use. Drovers in charge of travelling stock
pass by it as if it was not, and it is equally useless to the townspeople.
Everything is watered at the soakage, including the horses attached to
travelling mobs of cattle. Without this natural supply which people draw up
with a rope and bucket we don't know what the public and townspeople
would do.... Mr. Sleath has probably forgotten that there is such a place as
Milparinka and that it's water supply is defective' (Sturt Recorder, 6
November, 1897:2)
In January 1898 further articles suggested that many drovers now
bypassed the Milparinka Well, preferring to water sheep at Warratta, which
was probably the private well further up the creek already mentioned.
With the exception of the Milparinka Public Well, the dates at which
various wells were sunk have not been established, but in 1934 the NSW
Department of Mines published a list of those then known to exist in the
vicinity of Milparinka. That listing clearly demonstrates that the best flows
of good and easily retrieved water were at Chinaman's and Chinaman's
Garden Wells.
In summary, the supply of water at Milparinka was always a cause for
community concern. Naturally occurring catchments were inadequate, and
resort was made to the use of wells and the construction of tanks to hold
surface runoff. Most wells were of little use for domestic purposes, on
account of the brackish nature of the sub-surface water, and the tanks
became equally useless on account of neglect. The prevailing attitude at
Milparinka seems to have been that the Government should rectify the
situation, there being a complete lack of appreciation that self-help might
have vastly improved the available resource. I suggest that under the
circumstances the Chinese probably had little difficulty in maintaining a
virtual monopoly over the supply of palatable water.
Name of Well Total
Depth
Warratta 100
Peak 154
Chinaman's 60
Cox's
Chinaman's Garden 75
Water Supply Quality
Level (gallons
per hour)
60
134
Water Quality:
H = very slightly hard water - potable and suitable for all purposes.
H1 = slightly hard water - suitable for stock watering as well as domestic purposes and
human consumption in an emergency.
45
20
20
60
H1
H
H
H
H