Constructed between 1908 and 1911, Morton Dam was built to increase Wellington’s water reserves and was a key part of the city’s early 20th-century water supply system. The dam, named after City Engineer William Hobbard Morton, was made of reinforced concrete flat slab buttresses, spanning 128 metres and standing 17 metres tall.
The cast-iron pipeline associated with the dam carried raw water from the newly built Morton Dam through the valley, linking into the existing pipeline that replaced the old water race near the present-day Wainuiomata Water Museum and former caretaker’s house. The system relied largely on gravity, using the natural contours of the land to maintain flow and pressure as the water made its way into Wellington’s distribution network.
