A WONDER DAM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 13 July 1925, Page 8

A WONDER DAM.

MORE WATER THAN SIDNEY HARBOUR. The great dam at Burrinjuek has been brought into prominence of late by complaints from W-agga and other centres in the Riverina that the existence of this vast expanse of water was responsible largely for the severity of the recent floods. Meanwhile it is doubtful whether the immense scale of the work is generally appreciated. It seems to be vaguely understood that it is just a device to supply some water to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. Fifteen years ago (says a writer in the Sydney Sun) the Burrinjuck dam was commenced, and since then there has been an army of workmen engaged on the erection of the workshops and tho construction of the dam itself. The work lias gone on quietly and more or less unobtrusively during that period. The total capacity of the dam is estimated at 33,612,671,000 cubic feet, or 771,641 acre feet; that is to say, sufficient to cover that number of acres with water to the depth of one foot. Those figures convey little to the average person, and Mr D. F. Campbell, resident engineer, has worked out the capacity at 50,000,000,000 kerosene tins-full. in that quantity is an estimated 4,400,000,000,000 cupsful, and it would take . an experienced hand — working at the rate of a dozen cups to the minute —nearly 780,0(H) year s to bai| the dam dry. With more water than is contained iii Sydney Harbour banked up, It is really no’ wonder that alarmists are concerned at what might happen if an out-size in floods visited 'the district. But Mr Campbell—Scotch, conservative, unperturbed—says, in an offhand manner, that water can he let out of the dam by sluices at the rate of 10,000 cubic feet a. second; in other .words, about 60,000 gallons, or 60 ordinary 1000 gallon tanksful. Mr Campbell is evidently used to hearing jieople ask questions, go lie has the answers ready in as commonsense measures as he knows. The dam itself has been constructed in a. natural gorge between two mountains on the Murrumbidgee River. The stored waters are hemmed in with mountains towering 2000 ft. above the water, and the road rises gradually from the water’s edge to the top of the mountain. Through the mountains across which the dam has been built, can be seen the snow-clad peaks of the Kosciusko Ranges, and the view in the early morning or. at the setting of the sun is magnificent. Just- above the township of Burrinjack, the Murrumbidgee River opens out into a splendid basin, two miles across at it s widest part. The ]ake formed by the stored waters has a coastline of 150 miles. Corn flats and orchards have been covered and lionie s deserted as the waters rose in the dam. And it is possible to stop the launch in midstream on the Goodradigbee river and pick walnuts from a tree just poking its head above a submerged orchard. The construction of the Burrinjack dam represents an engineering feat of considerable magnitude. In comparison, the construction of the larger Hume weir, in level country, is child’s play. The construction of a railway from Goon dab for the supply of stores was only tlie first step in a difficult job. Level clearings bad to be blasted out of the mountain side before workshops could lie erected, and even now cranes and concrete-mixing works are perched perilously on tho sides of the cliff'. There are crazy staircases everywhere—it is a miracle that the work lias not taken twice 15 years to accomplish. The height of the concrete dam is 242 ft. above the foundation—as high as the Sydney G.P.O. tower. When you stand at the foot of the dam the top curls oyer and looks at you in a most disturbing .manner. The dam is over 750 ft. wide—-the G.P.O. is a mere 350 ft. or so, so that vou can put two post offices o n the face of the wall of'the dam, and then have space to spare.