Bendora Dam

Location: Cotter River

Storage Capacity: 11,540 million litres* fed from a 290 square kilometre catchment.

Top water level: 778.2m above sea level

Facts: Double curvature concrete arch dam, Bendora dam was completed in 1961.

Water stored in the highest dam, Corin, is released into the Cotter River to control the level of storage in Bendora Dam. From Bendora a 1500mm diameter steel main brings the water by gravity flow to the treatment plant on Mount Stromlo at the western edge of Canberra. The Bendora gravity main, constructed in 1967, is 20 kilometres long and has a capacity to carry 310 million litres of water per day.

* A review of reservoir volumes in 2005/2006 has resulted in ACTEW adjusting reported volumes. The change in volumes is a direct result of more accurate mapping methods used to determine volumes compared with methods used in the 1960s, when the previous volumes were calculated. A review of volumes of the Corin and Bendora reservoirs, effective 1 November 2005, has resulted in ACTEW adjusting the reported volumes from 75.4 gigalitres (GL) to 70.90 GL for Corin and from 10.7 GL to 11.54 GL for Bendora. A review of volumes of the Cotter and Googong reservoirs, effective 1 October 2006, has resulted in ACTEW adjusting the reported volumes from 4.7 gigalitres (GL) to 3.86 GL for Cotter and from 124.5 GL to 121.1 GL for Googong.