The Burdekin Dam, officially the Burdekin Falls Dam, is a concrete

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation to oppose the horizontal pressure of water pushing against it. ...

with an uncontrolled spillway across the

Burdekin River The Burdekin River is a river located in North and Far North Queensland, Australia. The river rises on the northern slopes of Boulder Mountain at Valley of Lagoons, part of the western slope of the Seaview Range, and flows into the Coral Sea at ...

, located south west of

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

, and

Home Hill Home Hill is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Burdekin, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Home Hill had a population of 2,954 people. At the delta of the Burdekin River, it is a sugarcane growing area with underground wa ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Built for the purpose of

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

, the

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

, called Lake Dalrymple. Burdekin Dam is managed by

SunWater Sunwater, the trading name of Sunwater Limited, is a statutory Queensland Government -owned corporation that supplies bulk water to over customers and water consultancy services to a range of institutional clients in the Wide Bay–Burnett and ...

. Water from the reservoir is also used to replenish downstream

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characterist ...

Location and features

The dam wall is long and has a

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

, and a drop of . The reservoir holds at full capacity. The design allows for future storage capacity increases and potential for

hydro-electric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

ity generation. Plans are in place to increase the safety of this dam in an extreme rainfall event by increasing the spillway capacity. This project is scheduled for completion over the next 5 to 20 years. The

catchment area In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

for the dam extends north to the

Seaview Range The Seaview Range, part of the Great Dividing Range, is a mountain range located west of Ingham in North Queensland, Australia. Much of the range is covered by rainforest and parts of it are protected in the Girringun National Park and the Wet ...

west of Ingham, south to the Drummond Range near

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...

through the Suttor and

Belyando River The Belyando River, including the Belyando River (Western Branch), is a river system located in Central Queensland, Australia. At in length and with a catchment area of , the Belyando River system is one of the longest rivers in Queensland. It ...

s, southeast to the coastal ranges west of

Mackay Mackay may refer to: *Clan Mackay, the Scottish clan from which the surname "MacKay" derives Mackay may also refer to: Places Australia * Mackay Region, a local government area ** Mackay, Queensland, a city in the above region *** Mackay Airpor ...

, and west beyond

Charters Towers Charters Towers is a rural town in the Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It is by road south-west from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the town boomed as the rich gold deposits under ...

to the Lolworth, Montgomery and Stopem Blockem Ranges through the Clarke River.

History

Construction of the dam began in 1984. It was completed by

Leighton Contractors CIMIC Group Limited (formerly Leighton Holdings) is an Australian construction contractor. It is active in the telecommunications, engineering and infrastructure, building and property, mining and resources, and environmental services industries ...

in 1987 and is the largest dam in the state, with a capacity four times that of

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

. Burdekin Dam filled after the wet season in 1988.

Irrigation

The Burdekin River Irrigation Area was granted approval in 1980. It is Queensland's largest land and

water conservation Water conservation includes all the policies, strategies and activities to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, to protect the hydrosphere, and to meet the current and future human demand (thus avoiding water scarcity). Populati ...

scheme. In 2007, the scheme was supplying 103,000 ha of land located about inland from Townsville with water to grow a range of crops including sugar cane, cotton and rice.

Proposed hydroelectricity

Stanwell Corporation Stanwell Corporation is a Queensland government-owned corporation. It is the state's largest electricity generator and Australia’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter. Stanwell own and operate a portfolio of electricity generation assets in ...

has begun a feasibility study into a proposed

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

below the Burdekin Dam wall. It is proposed it would be capable of producing annually, enough to power more than 9,500 homes each year.

Boating

There are no boating restrictions, with a single

boat ramp A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving small ...

located near the dam wall. Water in the dam is often muddied with unsettled

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

long after the rains have washed it into the lake. This not only makes angling difficult but also means boating can be hazardous at high speeds due to the presence of submerged rocks.

Fauna and flora

The dam has been stocked with

sleepy cod The sleepy cod (''Oxyeleotris lineolata'') is a medium-sized fish in the family Butidae, native to tropical fresh waters of northern Australia and questionably from New Guinea. It is a member of the order Perciformes, thus is unrelated to the tr ...

sooty grunter The sooty grunter (''Hephaestus fuliginosus''), also known by the name black bream, blubberlips, Northern grunter or purple grunter, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a grunter from the family Terapontidae. It inhabits coastal and inland ...

and

barramundi The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer'') or Asian sea bass, is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Perciformes. The species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific, spanning the waters of the Middle East, South ...

. Numerous other species are present naturally, including forktail catfish,

spangled perch ''Leiopotherapon unicolor'', the spangled grunter or spangled perch is a species of ray-finned fish, a grunter from the family Terapontidae. It is endemic to Australia. Description ''Leiopotherapon unicolor'' has a slender, oval shaped body whi ...

eel-tailed catfish The eel-tailed catfish, ''Tandanus tandanus'', is a species of catfish (order Siluriformes) of the family Plotosidae. This fish is also known as dewfish, freshwater catfish, jewfish, and tandan. This species is a freshwater fish native to th ...

, long tom,

golden perch The golden perch (''Macquaria ambigua'') is a medium-sized, yellow or gold-coloured species of Australian freshwater fish found primarily in the Murray-Darling River system, though a subspecies is found in the Lake Eyre-Cooper Creek system, an ...

and

archer fish The archerfish (spinner fish or archer fish) form a monotypic family, Toxotidae, of fish known for their habit of preying on land-based insects and other small animals by shooting them down with water droplets from their specialized mouths. The ...

. A ''Stocked Impoundment Permit'' is required to fish in the dam.

Red-claw crayfish ''Cherax quadricarinatus'' (known by several common names, including Australian red claw crayfish, Queensland red claw, redclaw, tropical blue crayfish, freshwater blueclaw crayfish) is an Australian freshwater crayfish. Distribution and ecolog ...

and

freshwater crocodile The freshwater crocodile (''Crocodylus johnstoni''), also known as the Australian freshwater crocodile, Johnstone's crocodile or the freshie, is a species of crocodile endemic to the northern regions of Australia. Unlike their much larger Austr ...

s although not native to this river may also found in the dam. These were probably released by people who caught them from rivers of the Gulf of Carpentaria..

Saltwater crocodile The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats and brackish wetlands from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaic region to northern Australia and Micronesia. It has been listed ...

s are commonly known to take cattle from the reaches of both Burdekin and Suttor river sections of Lake Dalrymple reaches of the dam.

Awards

In 2009 as part of the

Q150 Q150 was the sesquicentenary (150th anniversary) of the Separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859. Separation established the Colony of Queensland which became the State of Queensland in 1901 as part of the Federation of Australia. Q15 ...

celebrations, the Burdekin Falls Dam was announced as one of the

Q150 Icons The Queensland's Q150 Icons list of cultural icons was compiled as part of Q150 celebrations in 2009 by the Government of Queensland, Australia. It represented the people, places and events that were significant to Queensland's first 150 years. ...

of Queensland for its role as a "structure and engineering feat".

References

External links

Pictures- National Library of Australia

More historical Photos
from the NQ Dry Tropics
Burdekin Dam Fishing Information & Map
{{WaterQueensland , state=autocollapse Reservoirs in Queensland Dams completed in 1987 1987 establishments in Australia Dams in Queensland North Queensland Charters Towers Region Whitsunday Region Gravity dams Burdekin River Q150 Icons