On our drive home from York a couple of weeks ago we decided to deviate  off the Great Eastern Highway to the south in order to visit the Mundaring Weir, Western Australia.

This huge dam, situated about 70 kilometres north east of Perth city, Western Australia; is one of the main water storage areas for the supply of fresh water to the 1.5 million (approx) residents of Perth.  Mundaring Weir is also the originating point for the water that is pumped via a pipeline some 600 kilometeres to the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie. At the Weir you will find various places which provide information about the fascinating C Y O’Connor pipeline project that was built from Mundaring Weir all the way to Kalgoorlie. An achievement which would be a formidable undertaking in 2009, let alone some 100 plus years ago!

Mundaring Wier dam wall looking north – November 2009

Mundaring Weir looking east; November 2009 – A very pretty place

Mundaring Weir Overflow Wall from southern carpark

Halfway point  along the walkway – Mundaring Weir

Mundaring Weir map – You Are Here is where we were!

Mundaring Weir – Friendly Gecko on the walkway across the Weir

I have visited Mundaring Weir numerous times during the past 4o years. However, it is a long time since I saw water levels high enough whereby water poured over the dam walls into the river region below the dam walls. Fortunately, due to reasonable rainfall during 2009, the dam holds a lot more water than back in 2008 when the dam looked near empty.

To the north of the dam wall is situated a delightful old hotel that was built way back in 1898. After we visited the main weir and enjoyed a walk along the wall to the central point we returned to our car which we had parked in a car park near the southern  entry to the main wall. From there we drove the couple of kilometres north through some delightful heavy bush country to the Mundaring Weir Hotel where we enjoyed a coffee break amongst the cool trees that surround this delightful old hotel.

The delightful Mundaring Weir Hotel. We enjoyed a coffee break under the green umbrella, under the trees  to the right

We arrived at the Mundaring Weir Hotel around 1 pm on a Monday. For that reason the place was not busy and we really enjoyed the fact that we had the place largely to ourselves. Mundaring Weir is a VERY busy destination for Perthites on weekends and public holidays. Try to arrive there during the week if you dont like big crowds of people fighting for a bit of space. The hotel has a main bar where you can buy alcoholic beverages, coffee and counter lunches. Downstairs there is a great casual restuarant where the hotel provides an excellent menu. The downstairs restuarant was not open on the Monday we visited.

There are also a small number of accommodation units, plus a pool and an area where musical shows sometimes take place on weekends. You will usually find a jazz band, or similar,  in operation on weekends or on public holidays.

They were doing an enormous amount of refurbishment of the downstairs restuarant area, pool area, and area surrounding the pool when we arrived. That looks like it will continue for some time to come.

Mundaring is an easy drive from Perth city for a day trip and is well worth the trouble. In fact you will enjoy excellent views of  Perth city and the surrounding coastal regions on your return journey to Perth city as you drive down the very, very steep Darling Escarpment along Great Eastern Highway.

Have fun on a day trip to Mundaring Weir, Western Australia.

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