Canal Construction

Work first started in 1911 on construction of canals.  Huge construction gangs, carrying out the work by horse teams  drawing dirt scoops of 5 cubic feet & 12 cubic feet capacity – described by some as being rather like large over-sized shovels. At the same time the sides of the canal were smoothed with scrapers.

The concrete gangs followed them up to seal the cannels where the soil was porous and build the bridges and culverts.

The work day began at 7am with the workman finding there way to the site usually on foot or by push bike.  The surveyors and engineers generally travelled by motorbike when carrying out official inspection of the work.

Main Canal construction camps were sited approximately every seven miles along the developing canal. As each section was completed the camp of tents, would move to the next location where horse yards would also be built.   Women and their children lived alongside their men in these totally primitive living conditions.  From the extreme heat, dust & flies in summer to cold, mud and frosts in winter

The constructions camps must have been busy place though, there were literally thousands of horses employed  - not only excavating but bringing in supplies of every kind from the bagged cement and all the required construction materials, supplies and food for workmen and families as wells as food for the maintenance of the horses