Conference Paper

Author

Cossins, Geoffrey

Title

The Overlooked Heritage of Somerset Dam: A Story of Droughts Floods Disagreeable Water and Lost Chances

In

Engineering Heritage Matters: Conference Papers of the 12th National Conference on Engineering Heritage, Toowoomba, 29 September to 1 October 2003

Editor

Sheridan, Norman

Imprint

Engineers Australia, Barton, Australian Capital Territory, 2003, pp. 48-48

ISBN/ISSN

064642775X

Url

https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.334960219732548

Abstract

Somerset Dam was the first large Australian dam to provide significant, controllable flood mitigation and to combine this function with urban water storage in the one structure, the first to adopt cone type discharge regulators, tractor type sluice gates and spillway sector gates. The Stanley River Works Board, builders of the dam, shares with the Tennessee Valley Authority a world first in locating high pressure sluices beneath spillway sector gates. Other practices were introduced for the first time in Australia such as the use of unit graphs for the design hydrograph, model experiments for dissipator, sluice and emergency coaster gate design, concrete permeability measurement and air entrainment. It incorporated the most advanced Australian design and construction features for its time and was the second Australian dam for which all concrete materials were weight batched and concrete consolidated by vibration. A substantial construction village was built, a considerable portion of which is still intact. At its completion in 1959 it had the highest storage to capital cost ratio as well as the most effective flood mitigation for the country's largest flood prone population. Finally, it relieved the chronic headworks water storage problem for the cities of Brisbane and Ipswich as well as providing employment during the 1930s depression and training a workforce which was invaluable for the construction of northern defence works to resist the advance of Japanese forces during the second world war. In view of the above it would appear that Somerset Dam is a worthy candidate for a National Engineering Landmark award and for inclusion in the National Heritage Register as, up to now, its heritage value has been largely overlooked. The factors leading to this situation are examined.

Related Published resources

isPartOf

• Engineering Heritage Matters: Conference Papers of the 12th National Conference on Engineering Heritage, Toowoomba, 29 Sept to 1 Oct 2003 edited by Sheridan, Norman (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Engineers Australia, 2003), 183 pp, https://search.informit.org/doi/book/10.3316/informit.064642775X. Details