Specifications
Built across the Boyne River south west of Gladstone, the Awoonga Dam is a rockfill structure with a concrete upstream face slab. The embankment was formed from rock excavated from a quarry on the side of the dam wall. The embankment is over 650 metres in length and 54.4 metres in height, with a volume of approximately 2 million cubic metres of rock. The spillway’s height is 40 metres AHD. This design of the current dam allows for further raising, if necessary, through the addition of gates to the top of the spillway. The maximum capacity of the present dam is 777,000 megalitres.
When full the lake is 40 m (111 feet) above sea level. Approximately 200,000 fish are released each year including barramundi and some mangrove jack. By early 2006 a total of over 2.9 million fish had been released into Lake Awoonga including 2.4 million barramundii, 470,000 sea mullet and 15,000 mangrove jack. These fish were bred at Gladstone Area Water Board's Fish Hatchery facility. The largest Barramundi caught, as at November 2008, weighed in at a 36.5 kg (80.5 lbs). Lake Awoonga is one of the only dams in Australia to have been stocked with Mangrove Jack.
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