The Cannie Ridge Pump was donated to Lake Boga in 1955

Donated by the State Rivers and Water Supply commission in 1955 and erected at Lake Boga as a historic memorial with the generous support of local citizens and makers of the pump, Thompsons (Castlemaine) Ltd.

The steam driven pump was originally installed in 1903 at Long Lake, adjoining Lake Boga, as the source of supply for a channel system then being constructed through 600 square miles (1,553 sq. kilometres) of drought-stricken farmlands.

In 1926 (the Long Lake District having meanwhile been linked with the Wimmera-Mallee gravitational channel system) the pump was transferred to Cannie Ridge pumping station which had been installed in 1910 to supply by a second lift high land on the Ridge within the district. There the pump worked until its replacement by a modern diesel driven pump in 1952.

The "Cannie Ridge Pump", as the old plant continues to be known, consists of steam engine and pump, both of the horizontal and reciprocating type, connected by common piston rods moving with a stroke of 36 inches (91.4cm). The whole plant is 36 feet (10.97 metres) long and is dominated by the engine end by a flywheel 15 feet (4.47 metres) in diameter. Total weight is 55 tons (55.8 tonne).

The engine, a cross compound condensing Corliss valve engine, is rated at 75 horse-power (55.92 kw) at a speed of 52 revolutions per minute. It has a high pressure cylinder of 16 inch (40.6 cm) diameter on the one side and a 30 inch (76.2 cm) diameter low pressure cylinder on the other. Steam was supplied from a wood-fire boiler at a pressure of 150 pounds per square inch (1,034 kilopascal).

The pump has cylinders of 10 inch (25.4cm) and 14 inch (35.56cm) diametres, and is fitted with specifically designed "Riedler" valve gear and air vessels which permitted much higher speed and output than could be obtained from ordinary reciprocating pumps of the period. So far as is known, the only other pump of this type in Australia was a smaller one supplied by the same makers, Thompson's of Castlemaine, to the Rushworth Waterworks Trust in 1899. Output of the Cannie Ridge Pump was 3,000,000 gallons (13,638,270 litres) per day.