Kidston Dam also known as Copperfield Dam is a dam in Lyndhurst,

Shire of Etheridge The Shire of Etheridge is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia in what is known as the Savannah Gulf region. Its economy is based on cattle grazing and mining. It covers an area of , and has ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. It is approximately north of Hughenden and was built for the

Kidston Gold Mine Kidston Gold Mine is a former open cut gold mine in northern Queensland, Australia. Gold was first discovered around 1907 at what was initially known as ''Oak's Rush'' and renamed to Kidston a few months later as a gold rush started. The gold w ...

. The mine closed July 2001. The lake created by the dam has a capacity of .

History

This storage and associated pipeline was built to provide water to the Kidston Goldmine in the early 1980s on the Copperfield River, a tributary of the Einasleigh River in the Gilbert River catchment. The dam was one of the first dams built in Australia using the roller compacted concrete technique. At the closure of the mine in 2001, the dam was handed back to the Queensland Government and is owned/ managed by the Queensland Department of Energy and Water Supply (DEWS). Downstream properties receive water via a pipeline which was built to supply the mine and associated township. There is also a local arrangement to release water (towards the end of winter) to fill downstream waterholes. This allows

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripar ...

properties access to water for stock and domestic use until the coming wet season.

Kidston Pumped Storage Project

The

Kidston Solar Project Kidston Solar Project is a photovoltaic solar power station built on top of the former Kidston Gold Mine utilising the tailings storage facility in northern Queensland, Australia. The project consists of two solar farms, KS1 and KS2. The Kidston ...

is a

solar farm A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building ...

on the former mine's tailings heap. It has been generating electricity into the

National Electricity Market The National Electricity Market (NEM) is an arrangement in Australia's electricity sector for the connection of the electricity transmission grids of the eastern and southern Australia states and territories to create a cross-state wholesale ele ...

(NEM) since December 2017, and the Kidston Dam is suggested to supply pumped storage hydroelectricity for matching supply and demand between solar farm and grid. The project was upgraded to solar and pumped storage, at an expected cost of $330 million in 2017. The project signed a 10-year power purchase agreement with

EnergyAustralia EnergyAustralia (formerly TRUenergy) is an electricity generation, electricity and gas retailing private company in Australia. It is one of the "big three" retailers in the National Electricity Market. It generates electricity primarily using ...

in 2020, backed by a $610 million loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, and a $47 million grant from the

Australian Renewable Energy Agency The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is an independent agency of the Australian federal government, established in 2012 to manage Australia's renewable energy programs, with the objective of increasing supply and competitiveness of Au ...

. Completion is expected by 2024 at a cost of A$777 million. A 186 kilometre single-circuit transmission line from Kidston to Mount Fox. Construction began in 2021. The upper reservoir for the Kidston Pumped Storage Project holds 3.75 mn cubic meters of water as active storage, and 1.03 mn cubic meters as extended storage. The lower reservoir holds 3.25 mn cubic meters of water as active storage, and 1.5 mn cubic meters as extended storage. There is an average drop of 200 meters between the two reservoirs, ranging from 181m to 218m.

Fishing

The area is popular with recreational fisherman. In recent years the dam has seen an exponential growth in the redclaw population. Access for fishing boats is via a steep dirt and rock boat ramp next to the dam wall. In 2017, DEWS installed 14 safety warning sign buoys, approximately off the dam wall, to alert waterway users of the danger of overtopping the overflow spillway. CheraxQuadricarinatus

References

External links

Natural Resources and Water

Reservoirs in Queensland Dams completed in 2001 North West Queensland Dams in Queensland {{Australia-dam-stub

History

Kidston Pumped Storage Project

Fishing

See also

References

External links