Hume and Dartmouth Dams Operations Review Hume DamHume Dam is located on the River Murray, 16 km upstream of Albury - Wodonga. The first explorer of the river upstream of Albury was Hamilton Hume, in 1824. By the 1860s landholders were discussing ways of managing the waters of the River Murray for better navigation, irrigation, flood and drought control. This often led to disputes between competing users. In 1915 the River Murray Waters Agreement was ratified by the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Victorian and South Australian Governments. The River Murray Waters Agreement included provision for the construction of a storage on the upper Murray. The site of Hume Dam was selected from 25 alternatives. Construction of Hume Dam commenced in 1919. In 1924, the Commission agreed to enlarge it from its planned capacity of 1 360 to 2 470 gigalitres. This was later reduced to 1 540 GL due to the depression. When construction was finished in 1936, Hume Dam was the biggest dam in the Southern Hemisphere and among the largest in the world. The Snowy Mountains scheme resulted in increased flows in the River Murray and, as part of the scheme, works to enlarge the storage to its current capacity of 3 038 gigalitres (ie. to approximately double its capacity) were agreed to. These works were completed in 1961. In 1957, a 50 megawatt hydro-electric station was incorporated into Hume Dam to generate power from releases. This is adequate power to fulfil the demands of about 5 300 average homes.
PurposeThe primary purpose of Hume Dam is to conserve water in periods of high flow for later release during periods of low flow. The principal use of the water is for irrigation but significant quantities of water are diverted from the River Murray for domestic uses, industrial uses and to help supply entitlement flows to South Australia. While the primary purpose of Hume Dam is for water conservation a number of secondary benefits exist. These include:
CatchmentHume Dam is 305 km downstream of the source of the River Murray, and 2 225 km upstream of the river mouth. The catchment area of the Hume Reservoir is 15 280 square kilometres, only 1.5% of the Murray-Darling Basin. Despite the relatively small catchment area, about 37% of the total inflow to the River Murray occurs upstream of Hume Reservoir. The catchment of Hume Reservoir typically receives between 660 and 2 040 mm of precipitation per year, falling mainly during the winter months. Rain is the most common form of precipitation over the catchment although snow is also important over 1 400 m. Only 7% of the catchment of Hume Reservoir is above 1 400 metres but it is a valuable water yielding area. It yields 18% of the water to Hume Reservoir (not all of this occurs as snow), which is 6.6% of the total inflow to the Murray. The Mitta Mitta River in Victoria contributes about one third of the catchment's water, and the upper Murray River contributes the other two thirds. Dartmouth Reservoir is located further upstream on the Mitta Mitta River and captures the majority of the flows in the Mitta Mitta. Transfers from the Snowy Mountains Scheme are released through the Murray 1 hydro electricity plant into the Khancoban regulating pondage from where they are released into the River Murray. The releases from Murray 1 power station are not all transfers from the Snowy Scheme as some of the Hume catchment has been incorporated into the Snowy Scheme (the area upstream of Tooma and Geehi reservoirs). The average net transfers to the River Murray are 580 Gigalitres while the minimum notification release (ie minimum release that should be provided each year) is 1062 GL. |
RIVER MURRAY WATER
