Thirty One Years On

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I have been scanning some old slides, and came across some images of the Burragorang Valley, including Lake Burragorang, as seen from the lookout near the hamlet of Nattai. It should also be noted that Lake Burragorang is the major water storage for Sydney and the Illawarra region, and at the time of writing (September 2019), is at 50% capacity, unlke the 2006 level of 35% capacity.

The diagram was lifted from WaterNSW's web page Weekly Verified Storage Reports.

1975 2006
Looking south along Burragorang Valley, 1975 Looking south along Burragorang Valley, 2006
Looking south along Burragorang Valley, 1975 Looking south along Burragorang Valley, 2006
Note that the brown areas at the edge of the water from the 2006 areas were underwater in 1975. And also some of the view is now obscured by trees which have grown to block parts of the view. These views are looking roughly south west, that is upstream.

1975 Photo

Burragorang Coal Mine
Coal mining operations have now stopped, but before Warragamba Dam was built, and for many years after it filled, coal was still extracted from the mine, which was located just below the lookout, as shown here. During the recent visit, I was not able to see any of the mine structures. I don't know if they have been removed (which I suspect is what happened) or I was not able to see them either because I looked in the wrong area, or the area is now blocked from view by trees growing just below the lookout.

Part of the mine is also visible in the bottom of the 1975 photo immediately above.

2006 Photos

Looking south along Burragorang Valley Looking upstream, all the area here which is lacking trees (i.e. the brown areas) is normally covered. The level is so low that residents of the former town of Burragorang have been able to return to see where they used to live.

Looking north west into Burragorang Valley Another example of the low water level. The detailed view shows the trees on the top of the peninsular in the middle of the photo have been growing for quite a few years.

There has been some rain in the last few days, including falls in the catchment areas. Not drought breaking, but beneficial. Thank heavens for the politicians and engineers who had the foresight to build Warragamba Dam all those years ago.

Drought Broken (2012)

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5m 04s

Sydney Water Supply Dams FULL!
Several periods of heavy rain in early 2012 resulted in Sydney's water supply dams filling, and indeed overflowing. Warragamba had not done this for 14 years! So it was a good excuse to visit the dams and record the event.

Updated at 20:38 AEST on Thu Sep 12, 2019
Copyright © 2007 - 2019, Lindsay Harris