Hume Dam | |
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Aerial view of Hume Dam and spillway, 2012
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Location of the Hume Dam in
New South Wales |
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Country | Australia |
Location | Riverina, New South Wales |
Coordinates | 36°06′30″S 147°01′52″E / 36.10833°S 147.03111°ECoordinates: 36°06′30″S 147°01′52″E / 36.10833°S 147.03111°E |
Purpose | Flood mitigation, hydro-power, irrigation, water supply and conservation |
Status | Operational |
Construction began | 1919 |
Opening date | 1936 |
Construction cost | A£2.1 million |
Owner(s) | Murray-Darling Basin Authority |
Dam and spillways | |
Type of dam | Gravity dam |
Impounds | Murray River |
Height | 51 metres (167 ft) |
Length | 1,615 metres (5,299 ft) |
Spillways | 29 |
Spillway type | Vertical undershot gated concrete overflow |
Spillway capacity | 7,929 cubic metres per second (280,000 cu ft/s) |
Reservoir | |
Creates | Lake Hume |
Total capacity | 3,036,500 megalitres (2,461,700 acre·ft) |
Active capacity | 1,417,188 megalitres (1,148,933 acre·ft) |
Inactive capacity | 1,619,312 megalitres (1,312,798 acre·ft) |
Catchment area | 15,300 square kilometres (5,900 sq mi) |
Surface area | 20,190 hectares (49,900 acres) |
Maximum water depth | 40 metres (130 ft) |
Normal elevation | 192 metres (630 ft) AHD |
Power station | |
Operator(s) | Eraring Energy |
Commission date | 1957 |
Type | Conventional |
Turbines | 2 |
Installed capacity | 58 megawatts (78,000 hp) |
Annual generation | 220 gigawatt-hours (790 TJ) |
Website Hume Dam at www.statewater.com.au |
Hume Dam, formerly the Hume Weir, is a major dam across the Murray River downstream of its junction with the Mitta River in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The dam's purpose includes flood mitigation, hydro-power, irrigation, water supply and conservation. The impounded reservoir is called Lake Hume, formerly the Hume Reservoir. It is a gated concrete gravity dam with four earth embankments and twenty-nine vertical undershot gated concrete overflow spillways.
Constructed over a 17-year period between 1919 and 1936, the Hume Dam is located approximately 27 kilometres (17 mi) east of the city of Albury. The dam was built, involving a workforce of thousands, by a consortium of NSW and Victorian government agencies that included the Water Resources Commission of New South Wales, the Public Works Department of New South Wales, and the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission of Victoria. Supplies to the construction site were delivered via rail, through the construction of a branch siding from the Wodonga - Cudgewa railway. Hume Dam is jointly managed by Victorian and New South Wales authorities on behalf of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. Goulburn-Murray Water manages water and land located in Victoria, and the New South Wales State Water Corporation is responsible for day-to-day operation and maintenance and the management of major remedial works at the dam.