| Windamere Dam | |
| Location Map: | New South Wales |
| Location Map Caption: | Location of the Windamere Dam in New South Wales |
| Coordinates: | -32.7279°N 149.7735°W |
| Country: | Australia |
| Location: | Central Tablelands, New South Wales |
| Purpose: | Hydro-power, irrigation, water supply, and conservation |
| Status: | O |
| Construction Began: | 1974 |
| Opening: | 1984 |
| Owner: | State Water Corporation |
| Dam Type: | E |
| Dam Height: | 67m (220feet) |
| Dam Length: | 825m (2,707feet) |
| Dam Volume: | 1740m2 |
| Dam Crosses: | Cudgegong River |
| Spillway Count: | 1 |
| Spillway Type: | Uncontrolled unlined rock cutting |
| Spillway Capacity: | 6270m3/s |
| Res Name: | Lake Windamere |
| Res Capacity Total: | 368120ML |
| Res Catchment: | 1070km2 |
| Res Surface: | 2030ha |
| Res Elevation: | 552m (1,811feet) AHD |
| Res Max Depth: | 58m (190feet) |
| Plant Type: | C |
| Plant Capacity: | 2MW |
| Website: | at www.statewater.com.au |
Windamere Dam is a minor ungated rock fill with clay core embankment dam with an uncontrolled unlined rock cutting spillway across the Cudgegong River at Cudgegong, upstream of Mudgee in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. The dam's purpose includes hydro-power, irrigation, water supply, and conservation. The impounded reservoir is called Lake Windamere.
Commenced in 1974 and completed in 1984, the Windamere Dam is a minor ungated dam, located approximately south-west of Rylstone. The dam was built by Abignano Pty Ltd on behalf of the New South Wales Department of Land and Water Conservation to supply water for irrigation and potable water for the towns of Mudgee and Gulgong.[1] [2] [3] Windamere Dam operates in conjunction with Burrendong Dam to supply water to the Cudgegong and Macquarie valleys.
The dam wall constructed with of rock fill with clay core is high and long. The maximum water depth is and at 100% capacity the dam wall holds back of water at AHD. The surface area of Lake Windamere is and the catchment area is . The uncontrolled unlined rock cut spillway is capable of discharging .
Geotechnical problems included excessive grout takes in highly fractured rock in the dam foundation. The dam foundations are weathered Devonian conglomerates, sandstones and shales. The spillway is located about away from the dam wall in mostly unweathered Ordovician andesite. The spillway is an unlined rock cutting that provided all the rock fill required for the construction of the dam embankment. If a spillway had been built in the weathered sedimentary rocks at the dam site full concrete lining would have been required.[4]
To allow the dam's construction, a 15 kilometre deviation of the Castlereagh Highway opened in December 1982.[5]
A hydro-electric power station generates up to of electricity from the flow of the water leaving Windamere Dam.