Lake Jindabyne - Flow of Water

Flow of Water

Lake Jindabyne receives the flow from the Snowy River as well as its tributaries, the Thredbo River and Eucumbene River. The Jindabyne pumping station pumps the water from the rivers into the Snowy-Murray tunnel where it flows west through Murray 1 and Murray 2 Power Stations before entering the Swampy Plains River and then the Murray River. The flow of water into Lake Jindabyne is particularly strong during the spring months of October and November. Lake Jindabyne's capacity is 689,790 megalitres.

The idea of the Snowy Mountains Scheme was developed in the 1940s as a way of increasing the flow of inland rivers in order to encourage the development of primary industries based on irrigation. After the Lake was built, the flow of water into the Snowy River was only 1% of the amount that flowed before the river was dammed. This caused concerns about the state of the lower reaches of the Snowy River in Victoria and NSW .

A Victorian parliamentary committee recommended in October 1998 that the flow into the Snowy River be increased to 15%. Craig Ingram was elected to the Victorian Parliament as the independent member of East Gippsland with a promise to increase the flow into the Snowy River. After the 1999 election, Ingram was one of a handful of independents who reached an agreement with Steve Bracks, the leader of the Victorian ALP. In 2000, the NSW and Victorian Governments reached a long-term agreement to increase the flow of water into the Snowy to 28%. Work to modify the dam spillway commenced in 1994 and is ongoing as at July 2009.