Burdekin Falls Dam

The Burdekin Falls Dam, also known as the Burdekin Dam, is a concrete gravity dam with an uncontrolled spillway across the Burdekin River in the Whitsunday Region, Queensland, Australia. Built for the purpose of irrigation, the reservoir is called Lake Dalrymple, and is on the boundary of the Whitsunday Region and the Charters Towers Region. Burdekin Falls Dam is managed by SunWater. Water from the reservoir is also used to replenish downstream aquifers.

The dam wall is 876 metres (2,874 ft) long and has a 504-metre (1,654 ft) spillway, and a drop of 37 metres (121 ft). The reservoir holds 1,860,000 megalitres (410×10^9 imp gal; 490×10^9 US gal) at full capacity. The design allows for future storage capacity increases and potential for hydro-electricity generation. As of 2022, plans are in place to increase the safety of this dam in an extreme rainfall event by raising the spillway height by 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) increasing the storage capacity of the dam by 574,240 megalitres (20,279×10^6 cu ft) or 31 per cent. The catchment area for the dam extends north to the Seaview Range west of Ingham, south to the Drummond Range near Alpha through the Suttor and Belyando Rivers, southeast to the coastal ranges west of Mackay, and west beyond Charters Towers to the Lolworth, Montgomery and Stopem Blockem Ranges through the Clarke River.

Construction of the dam began in 1984. It was completed by Leighton Contractors in 1987 and is the largest lake in the state, with a capacity four times that of Sydney Harbour. The lake filled after the wet season in 1988.

The Burdekin River Irrigation Area was granted approval in 1980. It is Queensland's largest land and water conservation scheme. In 2007, the scheme was supplying 103,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of land located about 200 kilometres (120 mi) inland from Townsville with water to grow a range of crops including sugarcane, cotton and rice.

Dam data from Wikidata (CC0) plus curated additions. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).