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Burrinjuck Dam
Burrinjuck Dam is a gated, concrete-walled hydro-electric gravity dam at Burrinjuck, in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia. It has three spillways across the Murrumbidgee River and forms an impounded reservoir called Lake Burrinjuck. In addition to electricity generation, Burrinjuck Dam is used for purposes including flood mitigation, irrigation, water supply and conservation. Also known as Barren Jack Dam and Barrenjack, it was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Commenced in 1907, completed in 1928, and upgraded in 1957 and 1994, Burrinjuck Dam is a major gated dam, located approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) south-west of Yass. It was designed by Lawrence Augustus Burton Wade and built between 1907 and 1927 by Lane & Peters of Sydney on behalf of the New South Wales Water, Conservation & Irrigation Commission and the NSW Department of Public Works. The dam's original purpose was to provide town water supplies, river flows and meet domestic requirements for irrigated agriculture, industry, flood mitigation and environmental flows.
Burrinjuck Dam divides the upper and lower catchment of the Murrumbidgee River, while both the Yass and Goodradigbee rivers flow into the reservoir. Together with releases from Blowering Dam, on the Tumut River, this infrastructure provides a regulated flow of water for the Coleambally and Murrumbidgee Irrigation Areas Lake Burrinjuck is the headwater storage for the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.
The pastoralist Samuel McCaughey accumulated hundreds of thousands of hectares in the Riverina after owning his first property in 1864. He had an interest in water conservation that led him to construct a series of irrigation channels and steam pumps that were critical to the rice-growing activities in the area at the turn of the century. The New South Wales government liked his ideas so much they agreed to build a larger dam.
The announcement for the construction of the dam was made on 26 November 1906 via a resolution made by the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in regards to, "the Barren Jack Storage Reservoir and Northern Murrumbidgee Irrigation Scheme".
Construction commenced in 1907. Prior to about February 1911, the dam was known as Barren Jack, a corruption of the Aboriginal name of the locality. A 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge railway was constructed from the New South Wales Government Railways' Main Southern Line at Goondah to bring materials to the site. The railway was about 45 kilometres (28 mi) long, had a grade of 1 in 30 and some 90 foot-radius curves and took about 2 hours and 20 minutes to traverse.
Delays were experienced throughout the construction period. Problems were found in part of the foundations of the dam wall in 1911, which led to a 12-month delay in completion of the first stage of the construction works. Delays were caused by World War I, construction of extensions to the spillways, and the fact that deep foundations were necessary.
Flooding in July 1922 filled the reservoir to the record height of 1,178 feet (359 m) above sea level, or 198 feet (60 m) above the bed of the Murrumbidgee River at the dam wall. The flood waters tore through the unfinished southern spillway and fell 200 feet (61 m) to the river below, resulting in a massive fog which one journalist compared to that of Niagara Falls. The flood water came within 2 feet (0.61 m) of spilling into the finished northern spillway, which was being used as a storage site for sand and granite used in the dam's construction. Had the water entered the northern spillway, the construction materials, worth £25,000, would have been swept away.
Burrinjuck Dam
Burrinjuck Dam is a gated, concrete-walled hydro-electric gravity dam at Burrinjuck, in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia. It has three spillways across the Murrumbidgee River and forms an impounded reservoir called Lake Burrinjuck. In addition to electricity generation, Burrinjuck Dam is used for purposes including flood mitigation, irrigation, water supply and conservation. Also known as Barren Jack Dam and Barrenjack, it was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Commenced in 1907, completed in 1928, and upgraded in 1957 and 1994, Burrinjuck Dam is a major gated dam, located approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) south-west of Yass. It was designed by Lawrence Augustus Burton Wade and built between 1907 and 1927 by Lane & Peters of Sydney on behalf of the New South Wales Water, Conservation & Irrigation Commission and the NSW Department of Public Works. The dam's original purpose was to provide town water supplies, river flows and meet domestic requirements for irrigated agriculture, industry, flood mitigation and environmental flows.
Burrinjuck Dam divides the upper and lower catchment of the Murrumbidgee River, while both the Yass and Goodradigbee rivers flow into the reservoir. Together with releases from Blowering Dam, on the Tumut River, this infrastructure provides a regulated flow of water for the Coleambally and Murrumbidgee Irrigation Areas Lake Burrinjuck is the headwater storage for the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.
The pastoralist Samuel McCaughey accumulated hundreds of thousands of hectares in the Riverina after owning his first property in 1864. He had an interest in water conservation that led him to construct a series of irrigation channels and steam pumps that were critical to the rice-growing activities in the area at the turn of the century. The New South Wales government liked his ideas so much they agreed to build a larger dam.
The announcement for the construction of the dam was made on 26 November 1906 via a resolution made by the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in regards to, "the Barren Jack Storage Reservoir and Northern Murrumbidgee Irrigation Scheme".
Construction commenced in 1907. Prior to about February 1911, the dam was known as Barren Jack, a corruption of the Aboriginal name of the locality. A 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge railway was constructed from the New South Wales Government Railways' Main Southern Line at Goondah to bring materials to the site. The railway was about 45 kilometres (28 mi) long, had a grade of 1 in 30 and some 90 foot-radius curves and took about 2 hours and 20 minutes to traverse.
Delays were experienced throughout the construction period. Problems were found in part of the foundations of the dam wall in 1911, which led to a 12-month delay in completion of the first stage of the construction works. Delays were caused by World War I, construction of extensions to the spillways, and the fact that deep foundations were necessary.
Flooding in July 1922 filled the reservoir to the record height of 1,178 feet (359 m) above sea level, or 198 feet (60 m) above the bed of the Murrumbidgee River at the dam wall. The flood waters tore through the unfinished southern spillway and fell 200 feet (61 m) to the river below, resulting in a massive fog which one journalist compared to that of Niagara Falls. The flood water came within 2 feet (0.61 m) of spilling into the finished northern spillway, which was being used as a storage site for sand and granite used in the dam's construction. Had the water entered the northern spillway, the construction materials, worth £25,000, would have been swept away.
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