Address & Contact
2470 Brisbane Valley Hwy
Lake Wivenhoe QLD 4306
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Wivenhoe
Dam was designed and built as a multifunctional facility. Its primary function is to provide a safe
water supply to the people of
Brisbane and adjacent Local Authorities.
The
dam has been built across the
Brisbane River about 80 kilometres by road from the centre of
Brisbane. At full supply level the
dam will hold 1.16 million megalitres, or about 2000 times the daily water consumption of
Brisbane. The construction of Wivenhoe
Dam, when added to the existing
water supply at
Somerset and North Pine Dams, is expected to meet water demand for the
Brisbane area for the next twenty years.
Technical Data:
Wivenhoe
Dam consists of an earth and
rock embankment 2.3 kilometres long and 50 metres high, measured from the lowest foundation to the crest, with a concrete spillway section on which five steel crest gates are installed. These gates, 12 metres wide and 16.6 metres high, are amongst the largest of their type in the world. The
dam has a total storage capacity of 2.61 million megalitres, of which 1.16 million megalitres is used for urban water storage. Some 200 separate properties were acquired to provide the 33,750 hectares of land required for the
dam. The catchment area of the
dam is 5554 square kilometres. The construction of the
dam involved the placement of around 4 million cubic metres of earth and
rock fill, and around 140,000 cubic metres of concrete in the spillway section. Excavation of 2 million cubic metres of earth and
rock was necessary to construct the spillway. The
Brisbane Valley Highway has been relocated to pass over the
dam wall, while 65 kilometres of the road and a number of new bridges were required following construction of the
dam.