Five Dams in a Day

Chris Tham on 2022-05-08

It is possible to visit 5 dams in the south east of Sydney in one day, with careful planning and an early start.

We started at Avon Dam, the third and largest of the four dams constructed to collect water from the Illawarra Plateau. This is accessible via Avon Dam Road by exiting the Federal Highway. Avon Dam has a grant Egyptian design, and it feels like we are at an ancient archaeological site.

Next up is Nepean Dam, which has an Art Deco architecture. It is the last and smallest of the four dams constructed as part of the Upper Nepean Scheme.

After that, we visited Cordeaux Dam, also with an Egyptian design. It is the second of four dams constructed as part of the Upper Nepean Scheme, and my personal favourite because of the spillway located at the end of the dam wall and the deep gorge on the downstream side.

Travelling from Cordeaux Dam to Cataract Dam, we passed through Broughton Pass, which contains a water pumping station.

Cataract Dam is the oldest of the Upper Nepean Dams and feature a “castle” design.

The final dam in our tour is Woronora Dam. It is the fifth dam built as part of Sydney’s water supply network, and the final one to be built before World War II.

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Category: Sydney Dams
Tag: Dam, Sydney

Posted by Chris Tham

Chris Tham is a co-founder of Visual Voyager Pty Ltd, the Principal Voigtländer Ambassador for Mainline Photographics and a Workshop Instructor for Mainline Photo Academy. She brings over 35 years of experience as a photographer to her role, starting with a Yashica rangefinder belonging to her dad, joining the Photography Club in school, and developing her own photos. More recently, Chris has been taking photos during her travels, and as a result has experienced some of the most interesting places in the world. Chris focuses on nature, street, and urban architecture subjects in her photography.

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