Life In Australia

When we arrived in the small town of Warragamba, we found it quite difficult to find the dam’s observation platform. The signs led to a visitors’ centre, which had closed half an hour before we arrived. After driving around a little, we eventually found the observation platform and were fortunate to arrive half an hour before the gates leading to the platform were locked.

We got out of the car, stretched our legs and spent some time reading the signs on the lookout and learning more about the Warragamba Dam, the largest concrete dam in Australia. It supplies around 80% of Sydney’s water requirements and is one of the reasons behind Sydney’s rapid development since the 1960s – without an adequate water supply such development would not have been possible.

The Dam has recently been strengthened with the construction of an auxiliary spillway, so that, in the case of an extreme flood that has a one in 100,000 chance of happening, the waters would be diverted and the dam would not burst. Further information on the Warragamba Dam can be found here

I was struck by just how much the dam fits in well with the surrounding countryside. It is amazing that such a peaceful location has been disturbed as little as possible by the construction of the dam.

When we drove back through Warragamba, we saw that many of the businesses in town had ‘For Lease’ signs in their windows. Has the economic downturn reached such a small, sleepy town?Perhaps there was a temporary upturn when the auxiliary spillway was being built but this has turned into a downturn, now that construction has been completed.

We intended to drive straight back home but ended up stopping at a McDonalds on the way. The children were overjoyed to see that it had an indoor soft play area where they played happily for some time. It was nice to see that the play area had little doors and sliding coloured balls to amuse babies and toddlers, as well as tunnels, slides and other amusements for the older children.

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