Lake Burragorang is a man-made reservoir in the lower Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, serving as a major water supply for greater metropolitan Sydney. The dam impounding the lake, the

Warragamba Dam Warragamba Dam is a heritage-listed dam in the outer South Western Sydney suburb of Warragamba, Wollondilly Shire in New South Wales, Australia. It is a concrete gravity dam, which creates Lake Burragorang, the primary reservoir for water supp ...

, is located approximately southwest of the Sydney central business district. Lake Burragorang is within the World Heritage Site of the Greater Blue Mountains Area. The reservoir collects water from the converged flows of the Coxs, Kowmung,

Nattai The Nattai National Park is a protected national park that is located in the Macarthur and Southern Highlands regions of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. It is situated approximately southwest of the Sydney central business district ...

Wingecarribee Wingecarribee Shire is the local government area of the Southern Highlands in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Wingecarribee Shire is around southwest of the Sydney central business district and is part of regional Capital Countr ...

Wollondilly Wollondilly Shire is a periurban local government area adjacent to the south-western fringe of Sydney, parts of which fall into the Macarthur, Blue Mountains and Central Tablelands regions in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Wollondi ...

, and

Warragamba Warragamba is a town in New South Wales, Australia, in Wollondilly Shire. Located on the eastern edge of the Blue Mountains, Warragamba is one and a half hour's drive west of Sydney. The name Warragamba comes from the aboriginal words ''Warra ...

rivers and their associated

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

, all within the Nepean and

Hawkesbury River The Hawkesbury River, or Hawkesbury-Nepean River, is a river located northwest of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its associated main tributary, the Nepean River, almost encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney ...

catchment.

Pre-lake history

Before the construction of the dam,

Burragorang Valley Burragorang or Burragorang Valley is a locality in the Macarthur Region of New South Wales, Australia, in Wollondilly Shire. It is home to Lake Burragorang, which is impounded by Warragamba Dam. It is located within the Blue Mountains National ...

had been inhabited by white settlers since the 19th century, and for thousands of years before, the Burragorang valley was part of the tribal lands of the Gundungarra nation, an indigenous tribe that called the Burragorang valley, along with the Blue Mountains and Megalong Valley, their tribal land. A number of farming towns (including the town of Burragorang) and coal mines were located in the area. All of these are now underwater. Construction of

Warragamba dam Warragamba Dam is a heritage-listed dam in the outer South Western Sydney suburb of Warragamba, Wollondilly Shire in New South Wales, Australia. It is a concrete gravity dam, which creates Lake Burragorang, the primary reservoir for water supp ...

commenced in 1948 and was completed in 1960.

Capacity

The reservoir's usable capacity is . Prior to April 2006, the usable capacity was , before the Deep Water Storage Recovery project was completed. There are fears, however, that population pressures may stretch the reservoir's ability to furnish Sydney residents with needed water well into the 21st century. The city's population is rising by about 50,000 every year. Water restrictions (limited usage purposes and times), were imposed late in 2003 and are reapplied during serious droughts, which are expected to become more frequent. There have been times when the reservoir has become seriously depleted. On 8 February 2007 the lake recorded an all-time low of 32.5% of capacity, although by late 2008 the water level had returned to 60% of capacity. To reduce the likelihood of a water supply failure, the NSW Government authorised the construction and operation of the Sydney Desalination Plant to augment Sydney's water supply. The dam reached maximum capacity and spilled in March 2012, the first time it had done so in fourteen years. This is consistent with increasingly extreme weather events, where longer periods of drought and reduced total rainfall, is expected to be punctuated with shorter, heavier and more sporadic downfalls events. In November 2019, government proposed a $700 million plan to raise the height of the dam by 14 metres. The purpose is stated as providing flood mitigation for downstream land. Critics have alleged it may be to allow rezoning of prime agricultural in the flood zone, to residential property for commercial developers. Increasing the capacity would result in flooding large areas of native wildlife habitat, in a relatively protected water catchment area. It would also flood large areas of native vegetation, that provides a substantial

carbon dioxide sink A carbon sink is anything, natural or otherwise, that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period and thereby removes carbon dioxide () from the atmosphere. Globally, the two most important carbon ...

, without proposal for replacement. The announcement was made while an application for concessions to extend mining operations inside the drinking water catchment areas, is under consideration. In the first week of December 2019, the water catchment area experienced large bush fires, during a widespread and extreme fire season in Eastern Australia.

Public access

Lake Burragorang is surrounded by a wide exclusion zone to protect the integrity of the water supply; access into this zone is restricted. There are two access corridors for bushwalkers: Coxs River to Mount Cookem, and Belloon Pass to Yerranderie. Limited public vehicle access is allowed on fire trail W4 from Sheahys Creek to Yerranderie.

Power station

A hydroelectric

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 pow ...

at Warragamba Dam begins operating once the level in the reservoir reaches to within of full capacity. Its output is , but the dam water level has not been high enough for it to operate since 1998.

Statistical overview

References

External links

Sydney Catchment Authority - Warragamba Dam

Sydney's Dam Levels - current statistics and graphs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burragorang Macarthur (New South Wales) Reservoirs in New South Wales Sydney Water Warragamba, New South Wales