Tinaroo Falls Dam

The Tinaroo Dam, officially the Tinaroo Falls Dam, is a major ungated concrete gravity dam with a central ogee spillway across the Barron River located on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland, Australia. The dam's purpose includes irrigation for the Mareeba-Dimbulah Irrigation Scheme, water supply, hydroelectricity, and recreation. Completed between 1953 and 1958, the dam creates the impounded reservoir, Lake Tinaroo. Location and features In 1952, the Tinaroo Dam and Mareeba-Dimbulah Irrigation Scheme was approved by the Queensland Government. Construction on the dam was started in 1953 and completed in 1958, at a cost of A$12.666 million. When the dam was filled in 1959, the old township of Kulara near Yungaburra went underwater, and all of the residents relocated to Yungaburra and surrounding towns. The area around Kulara was among the last to flood when the dam filled. Earlier the area of Danbulla, located on Robson's Creek – which also feeds into the lake, went underwater. Most of these residents relocated to the tablelands area as their farms were resumed. The dam is located close to Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham (Yidyam). The dam wall, constructed with of concrete, is high and long. The maximum water depth is and at 100% capacity the dam wall impounds enough water from the Barron River to create a lake approximately 75% the size of Sydney Harbour with a capacity of of water at . The surface area of the Lake Tinaroo is and the catchment area is . The ungated, central ogee spillway is capable of discharging . Two radial gates serve as irrigation outlets that yields annually. In addition, one core valve serves as an outlet for the Barron River. After the dam was completed in 1958, there was expected to be another few months before the annual rains to do some final earthworks at the base of the dam, and to clear out the final settlements in the area. Unfortunately the rains began earlier than expected and to this day there are still some pieces of large construction equipment under water at the base of the dam wall, because they were not able to be removed in time.