Date: Friday 14 October 2016
Time: 8.30am – 4.00pm
Cost: Euro 80 per person
(includes transport, morning tea and lunch)
Wivenhoe Dam is the jewel in the crown for Seqwater. As the key drinking water lake for Brisbane, Wivenhoe Dam was built on the Brisbane River approximately 80 kilometres from Brisbane. It was designed by the Water Resources Commission and built in 1984.
The dam was built for the dual purposes of providing a safe and reliable water supply for the region and for flood mitigation.
Wivenhoe Dam has a total storage capacity of 3.132 million megalitres. At full supply level, it will hold 1.165 million megalitres, or about 2,000 times the daily water consumption of Brisbane. Wivenhoe Dam is a 50 metre high, zoned earth and rock embankment separated into two parts by a concrete gravity spillway. The spillway is controlled by five radial gates, each 12 metres wide by 16 metres high.
The dam was constructed between 1977 and 1984 after studies in the early 1970s investigated augmenting water supply for Brisbane and then the 1974 major flood in Brisbane provided impetuous for a viable project with flood mitigation benefits. The dam had earlier been proposed twice, in the 1890s and then again in the 1930s. It wasn’t constructed at those times, mainly because the cost involved was viewed as too great. The dam was upgraded in 2005 with a 165 m wide three-bay fuse plug auxiliary spillway to augment the existing spillway capacity for extreme floods.
The Mount Crosby Water Treatment Plants are the largest in South East Queensland, providing 40% of the region’s drinking water. The utilities and infrastructure within the supply network date back to the 1890s. The plant is a run-of-river system, with the bulk of the supply from Lake Wivenhoe. The plant is split over two sites on opposite sides of the river, East Bank and West Bank. This tour will include only West Bank, the newer plant built in the mid-1980s. The West Bank Water Treatment Plant uses air flotation filters – the only plant to do so in South East Queensland.
Itinerary:
| 8.30am | Meet at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, bus zone, Glenelg Street. |
|---|---|
| 8.45am | Departure for Wivenhoe Dam |
| 9.45am | Arrival Wivenhoe Dam Visitor Centre |
| 9.45am | Official welcome and safety induction |
| 10.00am | Morning tea |
| 10.30am | Presentations: Catchment management presentation Flood management presentation |
| 11.00am | Spillway common viewing platform, fuse plug and dam wall tour |
| 1.00pm | Lunch |
| 2.00pm | Departure for Mt Crosby West Bank Water Treatment Plant |
| 2.30pm | Arrival at the Water Treatment Plant Safety induction Tour of the Water Treatment Plant |
| 4.00pm | Conclusion of tour Departure for Brisbane |
| 5.00pm | Arrival Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre |
Delegate requirements:
This tour will involve a large element of walking; therefore delegates are encouraged to wear flat, enclosed footwear. The tour will also involve accessing operational work sites and Seqwater requires personal protective equipment to be worn, including long sleeve shirt, long trousers, jeans or slacks (not shorts) and a broad-brimmed hat. Seqwater will provide sunscreen and water bottles to attendees.