HUME RESERVOIR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16927, 16 April 1929, Page 7

HUME RESERVOIR

AREA OF 69 SQUARE MILES GREAT WORK DESCRIBED SYDNEY, April 4., Details concerning the Hume reservoir were given to members of the Legacy Club at the weekly luncheon this afternoon by Mr. J. .Keith Ross (acting officer-in "charge of the N.S.W. River Murray works). Originally, he said, it was intended that the reservoir should have a capacity of 1,100,000 acre feet of water for the purpose of irrigation and navigation only, and construction was begun on that basis in 1919. Later, however, it was decided to increase the capacity to 2,000,000 acre feet to allow for hydro-electric purposes. This, Mr. Ross declared, was t)ie largest water reservoir in the world, with the exception of the Elephant Butte, which held 600,000 more acre feet. When completed, the area of the reservoir would be 69 square milesfour times the size of Sydney Harbor. Mr. Ross spoke at length on the history and description of the reservoir, and detailed the work being done on the New South Wales section. Much preliminary work had to be done before the actual construction began. A town in the vicinity had been laid out, and telephone and other communication had to be effected with the outside world. An average of more than 650 were continually housed there. The cost of the erection of the dam was estimated at £6.000,000, said Mr. Ross. To date, roughly two-thirds of that amount had been spent. Replying to a question. Mr. Ross said that it would be difficult to determine the actual area that would be served by irrigation from the reservoir. There were many things that had to be taken into consideration. However, it was expected that the region would be in the vicinity of 200,000 acres.