Waranga Basin - Construction

Construction

Construction of the earth dam began in 1905 and was completed in 1915 using picks, shovels and horse-drawn scoops. The site of the basin was a former swamp in the then Waranga Shire. It was commissioned by the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission to irrigate the Western Goulburn Valley. At the time of construction, the Waranga Basin embankment was described as the largest project of its sort in the world with an embankment height of 8.8 metres and length of 7 kilometres.

Between 1915 and 1926, the embankment was raised in stages and a core wall was inserted. By 1921, the embankment was raised to 12.2 metres allowing the storage capacity to be increased to 411,000 megalitres, its current capacity. The major road between Tatura and Rushworth crosses the outlet.

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