HUME DAM
The Hume Power Station is a 58-megawatt hydro-electric power station installed in the dam wall, and is primarily used for peak-load generation.
Constructed over a 12-year period from 1919 to 1931 with a workforce of thousands, it was extended during the 1950s, and completed in 1961, necessitating the wholesale removal of Tallangatta township and its re-establishment at a new site eight kilometres west of the original.
As it is the furthest downstream of the major reservoirs on the Murray River system, and has the capacity to release water at the fastest rate, Lake Hume is used by the irrigation authorities as the storage of first resort. The reservoir typically falls to less than one-third capacity by March each year, but in normal years refills to at least two-thirds capacity before November, though Australia's highly unpredictable climatic conditions cause these figures to vary quite significantly from year to year. In 2007 Lake Hume fell to a scant 1% capacity, barely more than the water in the two rivers (Murray and Mitta) flowing through on their original paths.
Monitoring of the dam in the early 1990s revealed that the water pressure and leakage had caused the dam to move on its foundations slightly, leading to concerns that the dam was heading for collapse, threatening Albury-Wodonga and the entire Murray basin with it. Authorities denied any short-term threat. Traffic was banned from the spillway, and a large repair job commenced involving, in part, the construction of a secondary earth wall behind the original to take the strain.
Constructed over a 12-year period from 1919 to 1931 with a workforce of thousands, it was extended during the 1950s, and completed in 1961, necessitating the wholesale removal of Tallangatta township and its re-establishment at a new site eight kilometres west of the original.
As it is the furthest downstream of the major reservoirs on the Murray River system, and has the capacity to release water at the fastest rate, Lake Hume is used by the irrigation authorities as the storage of first resort. The reservoir typically falls to less than one-third capacity by March each year, but in normal years refills to at least two-thirds capacity before November, though Australia's highly unpredictable climatic conditions cause these figures to vary quite significantly from year to year. In 2007 Lake Hume fell to a scant 1% capacity, barely more than the water in the two rivers (Murray and Mitta) flowing through on their original paths.
Monitoring of the dam in the early 1990s revealed that the water pressure and leakage had caused the dam to move on its foundations slightly, leading to concerns that the dam was heading for collapse, threatening Albury-Wodonga and the entire Murray basin with it. Authorities denied any short-term threat. Traffic was banned from the spillway, and a large repair job commenced involving, in part, the construction of a secondary earth wall behind the original to take the strain.
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