Dartmouth Dam is a large dam on the Mitta Mitta River in the north-eastern portion of the Australian state of Victoria. The dam creates the artificial Lake Dartmouth, storing water from the Victorian "High Country's" snow fields for summer release into the Mitta Mitta (and the downstream Lake Hume) and subsequently into the greater Murray River for irrigation. Dartmouth has one Francis turbine-generator, with a generating capacity of 180 MW, the largest single hydroelectric turbine in Australia. It is owned and operated by AGL.
Construction was started in 1973 and completed in 1979 at a cost of $139 Million. The dam is constructed with an earth core and rock filled walls, rising to a height of 180 metres making it Australia's highest dam. It has a capacity of 3,906 gigalitres[1] (or 3906000 Megalitres), or approximately 6.7 times the capacity of Sydney Harbor. It can release a maximum outflow of approximately 10,000 megalitres per day in normal operation. The dam's inflow and outflow capacity is quite small considering its size, meaning that its levels vary little compared with some other dams on the Murray and their tributaries.[2]
The dam is a popular recreational trout fishery, being regularly restocked by the Victorian Department of Primary Industries. The turbine casing and concrete machine block surrounding it were destroyed in May 1990 when two steel beams entered the turbine. The resulting force ruined the power station and the dam's control systems, making it impossible to gradually release water from the near-capacity dam by conventional means. An improvised system, placing large pipes over the spillway to siphon water over it, was soon installed, but the inflow from an unusually wet spring was such that the dam would have overflowed anyway, leading to a spectacular cascade over the huge rock steps formed when the rock used for the dam itself was quarried from the valley walls. The station was subsequently re-built and re-commissioned in 1993.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ "Dartmouth Dam". Murray Darling Basin Commission. http://www.mdbc.gov.au/rmw/river_murray_system/dartmouth_reservoir. Retrieved 5 November 2006.
- ^ "Backgrounder 4: Lake Dartmouth – Overview of Operation". Murray Darling Basin Commission. http://www.mdbc.gov.au/rmw/river_murray_system/dartmouth_reservoir/hume_and_dartmouth_dams_operations_review/backgrounder_4:_lake_dartmouth:_overview_of_operation. Retrieved 5 November 2006.
- ^ "Newsletter of Engineering Heritage". The Institution of Engineers, Australia. November 2005. http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/shado/Learned%20Groups/Interest%20Groups/Engineering%20Heritage/EHA%20No_%2017%20Nov05_1.pdf. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
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