Page 138 - Bulletin 18 2014
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The machinery and fittings were imported from Scotland, and were dismantled at the base
station, hauled up the mountain by the cableway and then reassembled on the summit.
Cement, also imported, arrived in casks, and must have tested the little ropeway. Coal to
power the steam cranes came from Cardiff, and mules pulled the supplies along the rail tracks
to the workface.
The dam was named after the Mayor Sir John Woodhead, who laid the last stone in May
1897, and was knighted for his vision in promoting the project.
When the next reservoir, the Hely-Hutchinson, was being built, a little steam locomotive, the
“Mountain Meg”, was procured, dismantled and reassembled, and used to replace the mules
which had dragged the materials along the rail tracks to the construction sites. (Fig. 3.24.) It
is still on the mountain today, in a little museum on the edge of the reservoir, together with
various other relics of the construction which waterworks engineer Terence Timoney
preserved for posterity.
The Woodhead Reservoir had scarcely been completed when demand for water again
outstripped supply, and it was agreed to build a second dam upstream of the first structure.
Stewart gathered together his old work force, revived the cableway and the construction
town, and started work on the Hely-Hutchinson dam and three smaller reservoirs on the
mountain. (Figs. 3.25 – 3.27.) Progress was interrupted by the Anglo-Boer War, and the new
dam was only completed in 1904. This reservoir had a capacity of 200,000,000 gallons and
was opened on 5 March 1904. It was named after the Governor Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson.
There were suggestions about building further reservoirs on the mountain, but Stewart could
point out that the resources of the mountain were now fully utilised. Water supplies for the
growing city and its suburbs would in future have to be found from further afield.
Table: 1: Growth in water use in Cape Town 1898 – 1902 (millions of gallons)
1898 1899 1900 1901 1902
82 137 180 202 282
