Wyangala Dam Central to the Lachlan valley
In response to the ongoing public health emergency and to support social distancing measures, ALL WaterNSW Dams and Recreation areas will be closed to public access until further notice. We hope all our community members remain safe at this time.
In response to the ongoing public health emergency and to support social distancing measures, ALL WaterNSW Dams and Recreation areas will be closed to public access until further notice. We hope all our community members remain safe at this time.
Visit the Dam
Facilities
- Camping
- Children's playground
- Picnic areas
- Toilets
- Fishing
- Kiosk
- Shower facilities
- Boat ramps
- Water sports
- Bushwalking
The second major dam built for irrigation in NSW when construction began in 1928, Wyangala Dam helped drive the economic development of the Lachlan Valley as a major food producing region. Today the dam continues to support irrigated agriculture across the valley around Cowra, Forbes, Condobolin and Hillston. It also supplies stock and household needs for landholders and towns along the Lachlan River, environmental flows, flood mitigation and hydroelectricity. The lake is a popular sport and recreation destination.
Look out points
Wyangala Bridge
Drive across the new bridge opened in 2014 downstream of the dam for impressive views of the wall and large spillway gates, and downstream along the Lachlan River. The dam wall is currently closed for upgrade works.
Wyangala Road
Elevated views of the dam wall, lake and valley are available on Wyangala Road south of the spillway.
Opening hours
Dam grounds
Open 24 hours a day, all year round. Entry is free.
Wyangala Waters Park
Office is open 9am to 5pm daily. Phone 02 6345 0877.
Directions
View in MapsWyangala Dam is about 50 kilometres south-east of Cowra in Central West NSW. Cowra is about 320 kilometres west of Sydney via the Great Western and Mid Western highways.
Facilities
- Camping
- Children's playground
- Picnic areas
- Toilets
- Fishing
- Kiosk
- Shower facilities
- Boat ramps
- Water sports
- Bushwalking
Restrictions
Restrictions are in place to protect our water supply and ensure that everyone has an enjoyable and safe visit - with penalties up to $44,000 applying:
- No model aircraft or drones
Recreation Areas at WaterNSW dams will be closed on ALL Total Fire Ban days.
The Wyangala Experience
Things to see and do
1. Camp
Wyangala Dam accommodation options range from cottages, cabins and houseboats to powered and unpowered sites at two caravan parks on the lake foreshores. Reflections Holiday Park - Wyangala Waters is about 8 kilometres north of the dam wall and best accessed from Cowra. Reflections Holiday Park - Grabine Lakeside is located on the dam’s eastern foreshore and is best accessed from Crookwell or Goulburn. Both parks have a kiosk, picnic shelters, boat ramps, toilet, shower and barbecue facilities, and a range of accommodation options. Grabine Lakeside has group accommodation in bunkhouses.
2. Water sports
The lake is a popular spot for all water sports including skiing, jet skis, sailing, canoeing and swimming. Boat ramps are available at Wyangala Waters and Grabine Lakeside parks.
3. Fishing
Wyangala Dam is stocked with Murray cod, golden perch (yellow belly) and brown and rainbow trout. Redfin, catfish, Macquarie perch, sliver perch and carp are also caught.
Dam Summary
Facts & History
Wyangala Dam is situated on the junction of the Lachlan and Abercrombie rivers about 48 kilometres upstream from Cowra in Central West NSW. The dam is about 320 kilometres west of Sydney.
Wyangala Dam’s storage capacity of 1,217,000 megalitres is more than twice the volume of Sydney Harbour.
The dam is named after Wyangala Station, one of the properties on which it was built.
Why the dam was built
By the early 1900s it was clear that further development of the Lachlan Valley required a dam to regulate variable river flows. Following completion of NSW’s first dam for irrigation – Burrinjuck on the Murrumbidgee River – worked started in 1928 on the state’s second major irrigation dam, Wyangala on the Lachlan River.
When completed in 1935, Wyangala was designed to irrigate 15,000 hectares along the upper reaches of the Lachlan River, supply water to people and stock over an area of half a million hectares, and open up a quarter of a million hectares west of Eubalong for settle and development as wheat farms.
Today the dam provides water for a far larger area following the dam’s enlargement in 1971 and fourfold increase in storage capacity. Pasture and lucerne now have the largest combined irrigated area, followed by cereals and other crops such as oilseeds and legumes. The dam also irrigates cotton around Hillston and smaller areas of wine around Cowra.
How the dam was built
Construction of Wyangala Dam began in 1928 and finished in 1935. Hundreds of workers lived on-site at Wyangala township in cottages and barracks. They used steam engines and manual labour to build the wall, with a railway line transporting materials to the site.
The original structure at Wyangala was a mass concrete gravity dam 58.8 metres high with a storage capacity of 374,860 megalitres and a surface area of 25.2 square kilometres.
The dam was later enlarged with a rock-fill embankment with a clay core built downstream of the original concrete wall. Enlargement work began in 1961 and finished in 1971. A new spillway capable of withstanding a very severe flood was built, along with a road bridge over the spillway and new low level and high level outlets.
Raising the crest 23.5 metres increased the storage capacity by almost four times to 1,220,000 megalitres with a lake surface area of 53.9 square kilometres. The rock-fill embankment also strengthened the structure to meet modern dam safety standards. The original concrete dam wall can be seen when the water level falls below 30 percent.
Later improvements
To meet modern dam safety standards and increase dam safety in the event of extreme flooding, in 2009 the walls of the downstream spillway chute were raised. Work is currently underway to install a gate raising and locking system so the dam’s radial gates can be raised and locked open in the very rare likelihood of an extreme flood. A new bridge was built downstream of the dam wall as part of the upgrade for vehicle access across the river.
Notifications
In consultation with our stakeholders and the community we review and update these notifications.
To receive Early Warning Network notifications below please register your details with us.
To see past notifications, please visit all dam notifications.
Dam safety notifications
Alerts will be issued in the following unlikely events:
- When there is a reasonable possibility of dam failure.
- State Emergency Service (SES) require advance public warning to evacuate if such a failure may occur.
Amber alert
- Trigger - Storage level has reached Design Flood Level.
- Notification - You are advised to move to higher ground and if necessary evacuate.
Red alert
- Trigger - Storage level has reached crest level.
- Notification - Residents are advised to evacuate to their designated flood assembly points.
Flood notifications
Flood notifications indicate the dam is releasing controlled or uncontrolled flows, likely to cause downstream flooding.
Flood operations
- Trigger - Flow increases of 10,000 and 30,000 megalitres per day.
- Notification - Flows of XX,000 megalitres per day are being passed.
1 in 50 year flood
- Trigger - Spillway flows (uncontrolled*) over 24,710 megalitres per day.
- Notification - Flows of 24,000 megalitres per day are being passed, a 1 in 50 year flood.
1 in 100 year flood
- Trigger - Spillway flows (uncontrolled*) over 33,696 megalitres per day.
- Notification - Flows of over 33,000 megalitres per day are being passed, a 1 in 100 year flood.
Flood of record
- Trigger - Spillway flows of over 170,000 megalitres per day, last reached in 1995.
- Notification - Flows of over 170,000 megalitres per day are being passed, a flood of record.
High regulated release notifications
High regulated releases are when our operations may impact landholders immediately downstream or we are releasing higher than normal flows.
Normal operations
- Range - 0 to 5000 megalitres per day.
- Notification - No notifications in this range.
Increased flows
- Trigger - When flow increases above 5000 megalitres per day.
- Notification - Releases are planned to increase from XX,000 megalitres per day (ML/day) to YY,000 ML/day at 00:00 on DD/MM/YY.
More information
| Agency | Information | Website | Phone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bureau of Meteorology | Weather forecasts and warnings | BOM | varies by region |
| NSW State Emergency Service | Flood or severe weather warnings/advice | NSW SES | 132 500 |
| NSW Water Information | Storage levels and river heights | Water info | N/A |
| WaterNSW Algae Hotline | Algal alert details and algae levels | WaterNSW | 1800 999 457 |
| Early Warning Network | To view or edit your registration details | EWN | 1300 662 077 |