New England Dam Reports

With all the talk of drought, I thought that I should start a regular series of New England dam reports. You can find the original source data here. The percentages that follow may not be exactly correct since they come from graphs. I have drawn supporting information especially from sweetwater fishing.

Toonumbar Dam was built across Iron Pot Creek 31km west of Kyogle and completer in 1972. It holds 11 000 mega-litres of water and has a surface area of around 400 hectares when full. It is currently around 90 per cent full.

Pindari Dam is located on the Severn River 63 kms from Inverell, 22 kms upstream from Ashford. Pindari comes from an aboriginal word meaning 'high rocks' and is the name of an early pastoral run which adjoined the dam. Construction of Pindari began in 1967 with completion in 1969. Key facts:

• Storage capacity - 312,000 million litres or over half the volume of Sydney Harbour.
• Catchment area - 1,994 square kilometres.
• Surface area - 10.5 square kilometres.
• Maximum spillway discharge - 21,900 cubic metres/second (1.89 million ML/day).
• Maximum outlet discharge - 58 cubic metres/second (5,000 ML/day).

Pindari is currently around 35 per cent full, with a recent increase in water levels.

Copeton Dam is located approx 30km south west of Inverell. The dam is almost three times the size of Sydney Harbour when full and was built across built across the Gwydir River in 1976. I have started a series on the Gwydir River Valley.

In recent weeks dam levels have increased slightly to around 13 per cent.

Split Rock Dam lies on the Manilla River, a tributary of the Namoi, 31k from Barraba and 15 k from Manilla and was constructed in 1987 for irrigation. It has a water storage capacity of 397,370 mega-litres, a surface area of 2150 hectares and a maximum depth of 60 meters.

Split Rock has been flatlining at around 3 per cent full.

Lake Keepit lies on the Namoi River 13km upstream from the junction with the Peel River. The Dam was constructed in 1961 and has a storage capacity of 425 000 mega-litres when full.

In recent weeks, dam levels have increased from around 6 to 14 per cent.

Chaffey Dam lies on the Peel River on the edge of The Fossickers Way, 16km to the north of Nundle and 44Km south of Tamworth. The Dam has a capacity of 62,000 mega-litres and is the main water supply for Tamworth. Over the last few months, storage has increased from around 14 to 44 per cent.

Lake Glenbawn lies on the Hunter River around 15 kilometres east of Scone. Construction of the Glenbawn Dam was finished 1958, with a major upgrade in 1986. The Dam now holds 750 000 mega-litres at full supply capacity.

Since May, dam levels have increased from around 28 to 38 per cent.

Glennies Creek Dam lies 25 km north of Singleton and has a storage capacity of 283,000 million litres. Since May capacity levels have risen from around 25 to 35 per cent.

Lostock Dam was built across the Paterson River in 1971 for irrigation and town water storage and has a capacity of 20,230 mega-litres. The dam is currently full.