Copeton Dam is a 113 metres high, earth and rock fill embankment dam on the Gwydir River near Inverell, New South Wales, Australia. The dam was built by the New South Wales Department of Water Resources to supply water for irrigation and was completed in 1976. Unexpected erosion of hard, sound, unweathered granite in the unlined spillway discharge channel was caused by rock failure under high in-situ compressive stress. This type of erosion due to high in-situ stress has not been reported elsewhere in the world. Scrivener Dam, in Canberra, Australia, was engineered to withstand a once-in-5000-years flood event A dam is a barrier across flowing water that obstructs, directs or retards the flow, often creating a reservoir, lake or impoundment. ... The Gwydir River is a large river in northern New South Wales. ... Inverell is a town in the north of New South Wales, Australia. ...
Remedial works involved building a training wall to separate the original single spillway into a service spillway and a secondary (emergency) spillway. A concrete slab, anchored to the underlying rock was constructed in the floor of the main scour channel to provide some additional protection on those rare occasions when the secondary spillway will discharge water over this area. The smaller, more frequent flood events will be discharged through the service spillway onto more scour resistant rock which has performed satisfactorily to date. The secondary spillway will operate very infrequently and will only discharge when the capacity of the service spillway is exceeded.
Geological investigations for the design of these remedial works included surface stress measurements in the unlined spillway discharge channel as well as geological mapping and diamond core drilling.
The dam was built across the Gwydir River in 1976 and its primary use is for irrigation water storage.
CopetonDam is renown as a top Murray Cod, Golden Perch, Silver Perch, Redfin and Eel-Tailed Catfish fishery with possibly a remnant trout from past stockings.
This area of CopetonDam is located 17 km south of the town.
This foot bridge was at the level of the dam crest as it was prior to the 12m raising of the dam wall during the Flood Security Upgrading project.
The curved, blue coloured object visible on the crest of the dam is a steel frame which was used in the installation of the ground anchor cables.
The cables were transported to the dam in a horizontal position and had to be passed over the steel frame before they could be lowered down the vertical holes in the dam wall.
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