Pumpers Cottage (ruin)

Values

Rare example of an extant pumper's cottage

Physical Description

Two-room coursed-rubble stone cottage, in a ruinous state. Roof structures entirely missing, but the internal wall, and external walls with the exception of the western half of the south wall, remain predominantly intact, and the stone chimney and fireplace remain.

History

Constructed c.1895 specifically to provide accommodation for the ‘pumper’, the railway employee responsible for pumping water from the Burracoppin Railway Dam for steam engines.

It is not known whether the place was used as a residence after the decline of steam-driven rail transport.

According to Jeff Austin, Research Officer at the Railway Historical Society (WA), pumpers’ cottages constructed by railway contractors are now rare, with few (if any) surviving.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

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