The Blowering Dam is a major ungated rock fill with clay core embankment dam with concrete chute spillway impounding a reservoir under the same name. It is located on the Tumut River upstream of Tumut in the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales, Australia. Purposes for the dam include flood mitigation, hydro-power, irrigation, water supply and conservation. The dam is part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, a vast hydroelectricity and irrigation complex constructed in south-east Australia between 1949 and 1974 and now run by Snowy Hydro.

Location and features

Commenced in 1964, completed in 1968, and upgraded in 2010, the Blowering Dam is a major ungated dam, located approximately 13 km south of Tumut. The dam was built by consortium including Morrison, Knudsen, Utah and Mcdonald on behalf of the New South Wales Department of Land and Water Conservation for town water supplies, river flows and domestic requirements, irrigated agriculture, industry, flood mitigation and environmental flows. Together with releases from Burrinjuck Dam, on the Murrumbidgee River, Blowering Dam also provides a regulated flow of water for the Coleambally and Murrumbidgee Irrigation Areas. The dam wall constructed with 8563 m3 of rock fill with clay core is 112 m high and 808 m long. The maximum water depth is 91 m and at 100% capacity the dam wall holds back 1628000 ML of water at 379 m AHD. The surface area of the Blowering Reservoir is 44.6 km2 and the catchment area is 1606 km2. The uncontrolled concrete chute spillway is capable of discharging 2350 m3/s. A A$33 million upgrade of facilities was completed between 2009 and 2012, and involved the construction of a parapet wall on top of the dam wall crest and raising the spillway training walls. The addition of the parapet wall increased the crest height to 114 m. Storage capacity and water releases from the dam were not altered by the upgrade.

Power generation

The dam houses a hydroelectric power station and has one turbine generator, with a generating capacity of 80 MW of electricity; with a net generation of 260 GWh per annum. The power station has 86.6 m rated hydraulic head.

Recreation

In 1978, Ken Warby set the water speed record of 511 km/h on Blowering Reservoir - a record that still stands.

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