The Blowering Dam is a major ungated rock fill with clay core embankment dam with concrete chute spillway impounding a reservoir under the same name. It is located on the Tumut River upstream of Tumut in the

Snowy Mountains The Snowy Mountains, known informally as "The Snowies", is an IBRA subregion in southern New South Wales, Australia, and is the tallest mountain range in mainland Australia, being part of the continent's Great Dividing Range cordillera system ...

region of New South Wales,

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 ...

. Purposes for the dam include

flood mitigation In environmental engineering, the flood mitigation involves the management and control of flood water movement, such as redirecting flood run-off through the use of floodwalls and flood gates, rather than trying to prevent floods altogether. It a ...

, hydro-power, irrigation, water supply and conservation. The dam is part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, a vast hydroelectricity and irrigation complex constructed in south-east Australia between 1949 and 1974 and now run by Snowy Hydro.

Location and features

Commenced in 1964, completed in 1968, and upgraded in 2010, the Blowering Dam is a major ungated dam, located approximately south of Tumut. The dam was built by consortium including Morrison, Knudsen, Utah and Mcdonald on behalf of the New South Wales Department of Land and Water Conservation for town water supplies, river flows and domestic requirements, irrigated agriculture, industry, flood mitigation and environmental flows. Together with releases from Burrinjuck Dam, on the Murrumbidgee River, Blowering Dam also provides a regulated flow of water for the

Coleambally Coleambally () is a small town in the Riverina of New South Wales, Australia, in Murrumbidgee Local Government Area. Coleambally is one of the newest towns in the state of New South Wales, officially opened in June 1968, with the Post Office o ...

and Murrumbidgee Irrigation Areas. The dam wall constructed with of rock fill with clay core is high and long. The maximum water depth is and at 100% capacity the dam wall holds back of water at AHD. The surface area of the Blowering Reservoir is and the catchment area is . The uncontrolled concrete chute spillway is capable of discharging . A 33 million upgrade of facilities was completed between 2009 and 2012, and involved the construction of a parapet wall on top of the dam wall crest and raising the spillway training walls. The addition of the parapet wall increased the crest height to . Storage capacity and water releases from the dam were not altered by the upgrade.

Power generation

The dam houses a

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 and has one turbine

generator Generator may refer to: * Signal generator, electronic devices that generate repeating or non-repeating electronic signals * Electric generator, a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. * Generator (circuit theory), an eleme ...

, with a generating capacity of of electricity; with a net generation of per annum. The power station has rated

hydraulic head Hydraulic head or piezometric head is a specific measurement of liquid pressure above a vertical datum., 410 pages. See pp. 43–44., 650 pages. See p. 22. It is usually measured as a liquid surface elevation, expressed in units of length, ...

Recreation

In 1978,

Ken Warby Ken Warby (born 9 May 1939) is an Australian motorboat racer, who currently holds the water speed record of , set on Blowering Dam on 8 October 1978. As a child, Warby's hero was Donald Campbell, who died attempting to break the record in 196 ...

set the water speed record of on Blowering Reservoir - a record that still stands.

Gallery

BloweringDamWall.jpg, Blowering Dam wall. SpiritOfAustraliaModelBloweringDam.jpg, Model of Spirit of Australia in which Ken Warby set the world water speed record in 1978 on the dam. Blowering Reservoir from Blowering Dam.JPG, View of Blowering Reservoir from Blowering Dam, 2012.

References

External links