Warragamba River

Warragamba
River
Warragamba River flowing over the dam spillway, 1974
Country	Australia
State	New South Wales
Regions	Sydney Basin (IBRA), Macarthur
Local government area	Wollondilly
Part of	Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment
Tributaries
- left	Monkey Creek
- right	Ripple Creek
Landmark	Warragamba Dam
Source confluence	Coxs River
- location	Lake Burragorang
- elevation	118 m (387 ft)
Mouth	confluence with the Nepean River
- location	Warragamba
- elevation	22 m (72 ft)
Length	18 km (11 mi)
Nature reserve	Burragorang State Conservation Area
Reservoir	Lake Burragorang
Dam	Warragamba Dam

The Warragamba River, a river that is part of the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment, is located in the Macarthur region of New South Wales, Australia.

Formed through the confluence of the Coxs River and two minor tributaries, Warragamba River rises within Lake Burragorang and is the river on which Warragamba Dam is established, creating a large reservoir with total capacity of 2,031 gigalitres (7.17×10¹⁰ cu ft), that forms a major part of the water supply to greater metropolitan Sydney. The river descends 96 metres (315 ft), the majority of which is over the dam spillway, and then flows north into the Nepean River, north of the village of Warragamba, a course of approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi).

Prior to the creation of Lake Burragorang, the Warragamba River would have been formed by the confluences of the Coxs, Nattai, and Wollondilly rivers in the Burragorang Valley. Downstream, the river flowed through a gorge that varied in width from 300 metres (980 ft) to 600 metres (2,000 ft), and was 100 metres (330 ft) in depth. It was this configuration which allowed a relatively short but high dam wall in the gorge to impound a large quantity of water.

Today, the Burragorang Valley and most of the Warragamba River is submerged beneath the lake, and the remaining section of the river flows only the 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) north-east from the Warragamba Dam spillway to its confluence with the Nepean River.