City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder will explore ways to better recognise pipeline mastermind C. Y. O’Connor

Better recognition of C. Y. O’Connor’s impact on the community will be explored by the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder following a push by a local councillor. Cr Nardia Turner’s motion requesting a report exploring potential recognition options for O’Connor — the mastermind behind the Goldfields pipeline — was unanimously supported at Monday night’s council meeting. The report will look at the potential creation of a monument or public interpretation installation, and would also consider broad tourism opportunities any such recognition could generate. Potential investments to enhance the city’s established cultural and historical tourism options related to C. Y. O’Connor will also be considered. The precinct around the William Grundt Memorial Library is officially called the C. Y. O’Connor Precinct, but Cr Turner said that recognition was not well enough known and was not enough to reflect the impact his vision had on the community. There is also a bust of O’Connor which is inside Kalgoorlie Town Hall and not easily viewed by the public. “My idea for what I would like to happen ... is not just a suitable monument, I’d like recognition around various locations, like an interpretive trail that we could use not just for tourism, but also for education of our own residents on exactly what see what O’Connor has brought (to the community),” she said. “When we go to the Oasis to swim in the pool, the reason we can swim in the pool is because we have water. “When we go to our playing fields to play sport that are green, the reason we can play there and that they’re green is because C. Y. O’Connor, his vision, enabled us to have water in the Goldfields when we go up to the golf course. “Without water, we all know that we just wouldn’t exist; it doesn’t matter how many power failures we have, it doesn’t matter how much gold is here. “The fact that he had the vision to do this means that we might have to be a little bit visionary to make sure that his legacy stays alive within our community, which I feel is with the passage of time has perhaps been a little bit lost.” Supporting Cr Turner’s motion, mayor Glenn Wilson said recognition was even more important now that Water Corporation had plans to bury the water pipeline. “Any particular role that we can play in the recognition of that, to keep that particular pipe dream of his alive, I think is very strong,” he said.