Gordon Dam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lake Gordon | |
|---|---|
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| Location | Tasmania |
| Coordinates | |
| Basin countries | Australia |
| Water volume | 12,500,000 ML |
Gordon River Dam, also known as Gordon Dam, is a double curvature arch dam on the Gordon River in Tasmania. Its height is 140 metres, making it the tallest dam in Tasmania and the fifth-tallest in Australia.[1]
In 1963, the Federal Government of Australia provided a A$5 million grant to Tasmania's Hydro-Electric Commission (HEC) to build the Gordon River Road from Maydena into the Gordon River area in the South West Wilderness region. [2] It was being built by 1964, and within three years, the HEC supportive Tasmanian State Parliament approved Gordon River Power Development with little in house opposition in 1967.
The completed Gordon Dam was the only dam built on the Gordon river, despite the support of Tasmanian politicians such as Eric Reece Robyn Gray and others to further dam the river downstream (see Franklin Dam).
The dam was designed with Dr Sergio Guidici as the the chief Hydro Engineer - he went on to be involved with the design of the Crotty Dam in the West Coast Range, one of the last significant dams created by the HEC during its unabated dam-building era.
In engineering criteria, the Gordon Dam, the Gordon Power Station and the Lake Pedder and Lake Gordon impoundments are often conflated into one project and accomplishment.
However, the dam simply impounded the Gordon river, and created Lake Gordon. The McCarltans Pass canal was the connection between the signifacntly altered Lake Pedder impoundment, as that lake was created as much by the Scotts Peak Dam and this is often not mentioned in more general tourist-oriented material.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Australia's Highest Dams (pdf). The Australian National Committee on Large Dams Incorporated. Retrieved on 2008-04-07. “The five tallest dams listed in order of decreasing height are: Dartmouth Dam, 180m, Victoria; Thomson River Dam, 166m, Victoria; Talbingo Dam, 162m, NSW; Warragamba Dam, 142m, NSW; Gordon Dam, 140m, Tasmania”
- ^ Thompson, Peter (1981) Power In Tasmania ACF ISBN 0858020645 pp.19
