Poolburn Reservoir

Poolburn Reservoir, also known as Poolburn Dam, is a reservoir in Central Otago. Built during the Great Depression for irrigation but also as an employment initiative, the water is used by farmers in the Ida Valley.

The reservoir is located west of the Rough Ridge Range. Long Valley Creek feeds the reservoir, and the reservoir itself feeds the Pool Burn. The Pool Burn flows into the Ida Valley, combines with the Ida Burn, and breaks through the Raggedy Range as the Poolburn Gorge before flowing into the Manuherikia River.

There is access to Poolburn Reservoir from either Omakau in the Manuherikia Valley (30 kilometres or 19 miles) or from Oturehua in the Ida Valley (43 kilometres or 27 miles). There is also access from Paerau over the Rock and Pillar Range (24 kilometres or 15 miles), but this is a dry-weather road only that can be negotiated by four-wheel drive only, and is not generally recommended. The high parts of the road are closed from early June to late September each year, and Poolburn Reservoir thus cannot be accessed by road during winter. The road from Paerau to the Ida Valley via Poolburn Reservoir is part of the Old Dunstan Road that gave gold diggers access to the gold fields during the early days of the Otago Gold Rush. The journey from Dunedin to the gold fields took five days. An alternative route to the gold fields starting in Palmerston was longer by 50 kilometres (31 mi) but much easier to travel on, as it did cross any mountainous ranges or major rivers. This became the major wagon route and is today State Highway 85. With no major settlements along its way, much of the Old Dunstan Road was never fully formed, resulting in only seasonal access to Poolburn Reservoir. Since 2004, council staff fly in by helicopter to lock the mountainous roads each winter.

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