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Pipes & Tunnels

01 - East Perth Power Station.JPG
The old coal conveyor belt tunnel

The Hidden Network Beneath East Perth Power Station

Behind the imposing brick walls and towering chimneys of East Perth Power Station was a hidden network of pipes—an essential but often forgotten part of how the station operated. These pipes transported everything the station needed to run: fuel, steam, air, ash slurry, water, and waste.

 

It’s easy to imagine secret tunnels and underground bunkers beneath the site but in reality, most of these structures were demolished long ago.

 

A Network of Pipes

Manholes and inspection pits were more commonly constructed for pipes, in lieu of tunnels.

 

The scale of the pipe network is pretty impressive, with at least 40 different pipes installed during the roughly 60 years the power station was in operation. They include:

  • Ash Slurry Pumps

  • Atmospheric Exhaust Valve

  • Box Drain

  • CI Pipe from Shone Ejector

  • CI Sewerage

  • Circulating Water Intakes

  • Circulating Water Outlets

  • Discharge Pipe x 2

  • EWG Pipe

  • Exhaust Steam Driven Pump

  • Force Pump Discharge

  • Fuel Oil Supply Lines

  • Gas Pipeline

  • High Pressure Pump Connection

  • HP Steam to Turbine

  • Hydraulic Oil Lines

  • Lubricating Oil

  • Mulsifyre Ring Main

  • Steam for Boiling

  • Steam to Augmentor Jet

  • Steam Pipe Line to Gasworks

  • Steam Pipe Line to RPH

  • Suction & Discharge

  • SW Pipe

  • Tank Suction Pipe

  • Timber Wood Drain

  • Turbine Governing Oil Pipes

  • Walters Brook Pumping Pipe

  • Walters Brook Water Supply

  • Walters Discharge Pipe

  • Waste Oil Line

  • Water from Oil Cooler

  • Water Seal Pipe

  • 66kV Control Cables

  • 66kV Switchyard to South Fremantle

  • 66kV Switchyard to Transformers

  • 132kV Switchyard

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Tunnels

One of the last remaining concrete tunnels was built for the coal conveyor belt. It connected the rotary tippler, which unloaded coal from trains, to the conveyor galleries that carried coal to the crusher house. This tunnel was mostly demolished in 2022.

 

A few small sections of the older conveyor tunnel, before the crusher house was built, are sealed off behind heavy iron plates in two locations, likely welded shut as far back as the late 1950s. There’s no doubt it would be a highly dangerous environment, completely lacking in oxygen and filled with a range of hazardous contaminants. These could include asbestos, heavy metals, airborne dust, harmful bacteria, and even animal waste such as rat excrement.

 

Part of the old steam pipe tunnel, which once carried steam from Switchgear No. 7 in “C” Station to Royal Perth Hospital, has been reused for modern utilities. Some of the deeper sections can only be reached by excavator, and most of the original 1.37-metre wide tunnel no longer survives.

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