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The intake pipe coming up out of the creek.
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This is the foot valve at the end of the intake pipe. It has a filter ont he end to stop rocks and sticks getting into the pump and a one way valve to stop the water flowing back down into the creek. You'll also notice the large wet rock it's wired too...
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These little snails seem to be living on the end of the intake pipe. There were dozens of them and it looks like they are breeding too.
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The intake pipe going into the back of the pump house.
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The pump house from below, we made it out of half an old water tank and some scrap bits of timber.
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The trusty pump, bought second hand for $100 from a clearing sale. The 5.5hp honda engine visible form this side, these engines are everywhere on Australian farms.
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The bell housing of the Onga pump. Onga is an Australian brand. You can see the intake pipe going down to the left and the outlet pipe going down to the right. This pump also has an extra outlet tap which allows us to take the pressure off the pump, a nic
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The pump house on the side of the creek.
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The pump house showing the salvaged wooden pallete platform for the pump and the star picket at the front to stop it all blowing away.
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View from the pump house, you can almost make out the depression in the ground where the poly pipe is buried. The pipe runs up the hill toward our nursery. Not much too see considering the effort it was to dig the trench.
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Halfway up the hill the pipe emerges from the ground a snakes under the fence. More trench still to dig.
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Our first (and at this stage only) tap. The hose is extra large guage (18mm) to make the most out of the fairly low pressure.
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The pipe continues up the hill past the old woolly butt tree...
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....to the tanks. Two 1000 litre (250 gallon) recycled chemical totes. We have a friend who owns a packaging factory who gave us these two for $50, they usually sell for $200 each. They are not UV resistant and must be covered soon.
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The tanks are joined to the main line with a bunch of fittings. Each tank has it's own tap, so one tank is left full in case of emergencies and to prevent us losing all our water if a tap is left on.
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The tanks, sitting on a small pad of earth we levelled using our neighbours tractor.