Dam Opened in Australia

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 288, 5 December 1936, Page 11

Dam Opened in Australia

GUARDING AGAINST DROUGHT . SYDNEY, Nov. 27. Tho Governer-General, Lord Gowrie, on Saturday pressed an electricallycontrolled button on the New South Wales side of the Hume Reservoir and released millions of gallons of water from two huge outlet valves, thus marking the official opening of the Murray Tiver irrigation scheme, although many thousands of parched acres havo already been revived with water under the scheme. Seventeen yoars ago Sir Ronald Munro-Eerguson, later Lord Novar, then Governor-General, turne ’ the first sod in this gigantic Australian undertaking. Now tho reservoir, tho largest in the Southern Hemisphere, is completed. The area of tho lake formed

by the dam is two and a-half times that of Sydney Harbour. The reservoir has a capacity of 344,000,00 gallons. The lake formed by the reservoir winds round the base of hilly country for 40 miles, and beneath tho surface of the water is the drowned township of Bowna,

Tho cost of tho reservoir was £5,500,000. la time the Hume Dam will irrigate between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 acres of land in New South Wales, in addition to millions of acres in Victoria and South Australia. These three States, in addition to the Commonrvealth Government, have contributed to its cost. All this acreage will eventually be safeguarded against drought, and in the land which it will serve, the fat lamb raising industry will become the principal source of benefit. Tho Ilumo Dam represents the greatest national work of its kina undertaken in Australia. In fact, it is the most ambitious scheme of water con-

servation that it will ever be possible to complete here. The dam is a milelong rampart of concrete, 83ft. thick in one part and tapering to 15ft. It was just at its site that Hume and Hovell, great Australian explorers, crossed the Upper Murray in a primitive boat of wickerwork and tarpaulin. The catchment area of 5900 square miles is fed by the waters of a snow-fed region, including Australia’s highest mountain, Kosciusko.