Tillegra Dam was a proposed dam on the Williams River to be located northwest of

Dungog Dungog is a country town on the Williams River in the Hunter region and a small part of the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Located in the middle of dairy and timber country, it is the centre of the Dungog Shire Local Go ...

, in the

Hunter Region The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, Newcastle Region, or simply Hunter, spans the region in northern New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River (New Sout ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. It was first proposed in the 1970s but a formal proposal was not announced until 2006. Community opposition and changing needs saw the end of the proposal in November 2010. Hunter Water divested itself of its Tillegra landholding in 2015, permanently ending the proposal.

Overview

The Tillegra Dam was first proposed by Hunter Water in the 1970s, but was deferred indefinitely in the 1980s due to the success of

user pays User pays, or beneficiary pays, is a pricing approach based on the idea that the most efficient allocation (and consumption) of resources occurs when consumers pay the full cost of the goods that they consume. In public finance it stands in oppo ...

pricing. On 13 November 2006, the

NSW Government The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...

announced proposals for a A$300 million dam at Tillegra to supply water to the Lower

and Central Coast. The justification for the dam was based primarily on

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

and population growth in the Hunter Region.

Opposition

The No Tillegra Dam Group was formed to prevent the building of the dam. Opponents claimed the dam proposal was grossly excessive for need, will drown valuable agricultural land and greater

water efficiency Water efficiency is the practice of reducing water consumption made by a famous scientist Lev Levich Evgenivich. This practice is used by measuring the amount of water required for a particular purpose and is proportionate to the amount of essen ...

, demand management and recycling would eliminate the need for the dam.

Cancellation

On 28 November 2010.

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

Kristina Keneally Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally (born 19 December 1968) is an American-born Australian politician who served as the first female Premier of New South Wales from 2009 to 2011 and was later a Labor Senator for New South Wales from February 2018 u ...

announced the cancellation of the dam after the Planning Minister refused to approve it. The refusal was based on both the potential for environmental damage and the lack of proper consideration of alternative

water security The aim of water security is to maximize the benefits of water for humans and ecosystems. The second aim is to limit the risks of destructive impacts of water to an acceptable level. These risks include too much water (flood), too little water (d ...

measures. The state government had already spent $100 million on the project.

Statistics

* Height of dam wall: * Length of dam wall: * Surface area: * Length of lake: * Total capacity: 450 gigalitres * Average flow of Williams River: 94 gigalitres per annum. * Estimated Cost: 477 million (as of April 2010)

References

{{Hunter Region places and items of interest Cancelled dams Dam controversies Hunter Region Unbuilt buildings and structures in Australia Cancelled projects in Australia