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WATER, water everywhere! And what a story lies behind it.
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The giant Grahamstown reservoir has just turned 50 years of age. Most people never even think about it, except maybe if they glimpse the vast catchment while whizzing along the Pacific Highway, north of Raymond Terrace.
Or perhaps it's when an interstate visitor, flying in over the area, spies this big, unknown lake which lies below him.
Out of sight, out of mind. Yet the Grahamstown water storage area saved the Newcastle region in the 1964-66 drought. And it is still regarded as a vital buffer in times of water emergencies.
For when NSW Deputy Premier Jack Renshaw officially opened the huge reservoir back in July 1964, it solved the area's water supply problems for 50 years and just in time. (Water consumption would rise 62 per cent between 1955-1965.)
Probably lesser known is that it prevented a proposed Tillegra Dam from then being built. It also dodged some serious political flak and saved Hunter Water ratepayers spending more millions.
For it turns out, rather surprisingly (to me anyway), that Grahamstown Dam at 2800 hectares in size is the Hunter's largest single source of drinking water.
I've lived in the Hunter Valley all my life and incorrectly assumed Chichester Dam, near Dungog, was probably our major water source.
Grahamstown Lake, fed by the Williams River, is more significant, nearly 10 times larger than remote Chichester Dam, according to the Hunter Water Corporation.
Their figures show Grahamstown's optimum capacity at 182,305 megalitres.
That's compared to Chichester Dam's potential top capacity of 18,356 megalitres.
To put it another way, Hunter Water boffins estimate Grahamstown Dam is a fair chunk of the volume of Lake Macquarie. Or, at least the size of it if drawing an imaginary line from Marks Point across to Coal Point, then extending this area up to Speers Point.
And gradually flooding a low-lying wetland, once known as Grahamstown Moors to create the earth-walled Grahamstown Lake instead of building a Tillegra Dam decades ago is largely a forgotten story. A close call, you might say.
In 1952, after engineers investigated 28 potential dam sites, they recommended the Tillegra site on the Williams River for a large earth dam, despite political hostility from dairy farmers and the high cost.
But it was a water conference in Paris soon after attended by then Hunter Water Board president George Schroder which suddenly inspired the Swedish-designed Grahamstown Dam instead.
Visiting consultants then modified the concept, recommending diverting water from the Williams River (from above a tidal dam) into a big storage lake. The rest is history.
The latest news on Grahamstown Dam now is that Hunter Water intends to spend about $1.5 million constructing a two-kilometre long wave protection wall.
This will protect the relatively sallow lake - with its average depth of nine metres - from the effects of damaging storms and high winds.
This wave wall seems likely to be built at the junction of Grahamstown Road and Richardson Road, Medowie.