Wivenhoe spillway, 28 December 2010

[StephenM]

Hi all,

Here's an 8 shot panorama of the Wivenhoe Dam spillway taken yesterday afternoon between the showers. Only 1 gate open, but an impressive amount of water being released! Worth a look if you in the Brisbane area.

Cheers, Stephen

[CometGuy]

Thanks Stephen. Was wondering how much water was being released, must have been quite spectacular. Did you notice many trees, etc were unindated on the dam side (according to BOM the dam was 2metres above full capacity yesterday)?

Terry

[Liz]

Great shot Stephen, lots of water there .... and everywhere else too!! :thumbsup:

[StephenM]

Thanks Terry




Yes, the level was definately higher then normal - the attached image is the Cormorant Bay picnic area, and it looks like it's at least 2m higher then capacity!

Cheers,
Stephen

[StephenM]

Thanks Liz. Yep, there's certainly plenty of water around. We've had over 400mm in the rain gauge this month, instead of the average 126mm!

Cheers,
Stephen

[Sharnbrook]

Wivenhoe Dam is presently at about 120% of the supply capacity, which is 1.15 million megalitres. However, there is an additional 1.45 million megalitres of flood mitigation capacity. In other words, when the dam is "full" it's only about 45% design capacity.

Over the past few years, when people were whingeing that Wivenhoe had been built in the wrong place, they had conveniently forgotten the '74 floods, and this was a major reason for its construction.

If we have another 250mm of rainfall, they will have to open more gates, and then it will be awesome.

[firstlight]

Thanks for sharing, Stephen.

Here are a few shots I took in the 17 October when the dam was at 126% and the gates were opened. Truely spectacular... and more than a little wet :). I think I posted them before, but what the hey.

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