The Upper Yarra Reservoir is located east of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
,
Victoria, Australia, beyond
Warburton within the locality of
Reefton
Reefton is a small town in the West Coast, New Zealand, West Coast region of New Zealand, approximately northeast of Greymouth, New Zealand, Greymouth, in the Inangahua River valley. Ahaura is south-west of Reefton, Inangahua Junction is to ...
. Water from Upper Yarra Reservoir supplies towns in the upper
Yarra Valley
The Yarra Valley is a region in Victoria, Australia, centred around the Yarra River. Known for its natural beauty, agricultural significance, and as one of Australia's prominent wine-producing areas, the valley stretches from the upper reache ...
, and
Silvan Reservoir, which transfers water to most parts of Melbourne.
The management of 157,000 hectares of Melbourne's forested water catchments of the Upper Yarra such as the Watts (
Maroondah) were
vested
In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property are acquired by some Legal person, person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vest ...
in the
Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works
The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) was a public utility board in Melbourne, Australia, set up in 1891 to provide water supply, sanitary sewer, sewerage and sewage treatment functions for the city. In 1992, the MMBW was merged wit ...
(MMBW) in 1891. In 1928, the Upper Yarra catchment was permanently added for water supply purposes.
Approval to construct Upper Yarra Reservoir was granted in the early 1940s but due to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
work did not start until 1948. When the Upper Yarra Reservoir was completed the total storage capacity of Melbourne's system was tripled to nearly 300,000 megalitres.
Upper Yarra Reservoir has a capacity of and was completed in 1957, initially for the purpose of preventing flooding downstream.
Upper Yarra Reservoir is also supplied by water transferred from the
Thomson River Dam.
As of January 2007,
severe drought in south-eastern Australia had resulted in low water levels in the reservoir, which on 5 January 2007 was approximately half full. As of 22 July 2013, it contained 95,568 megalitres of water(47.6% full). The recorded water storage level in the dam in 26 September 2021 was 186,060 megalitres, equivalent to being 92.8 per cent full.
See also
*
John L. Savage – an American engineer who consulted on the construction of the dam
*
Albert Francis Ronalds – Engineer-in-Chief of the Board of Works during construction of the dam
[Beverley F Ronalds]
'Ronalds, Albert Francis (Bert) (1913–1999)'
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 11 May 2022
References
{{Melbourne dams
Reservoirs in Victoria (state)
Dams in Victoria (state)
Melbourne Water catchment
Rivers of Greater Melbourne (region)
Yarra River
Yarra Valley
Dams completed in 1957
Embankment dams
1957 establishments in Australia