15 October 2013

Taking a look at the enlarged Cotter Dam

| johnboy
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cotter dam

With the Tokyo Bureau Chief in town we went for a look at the enlarged cotter dam and the new piece of public art; Flow.

flow and dam wall

To be honest 15 tonnes of concrete sculpture is a little underwhelming in the context of the entire dam wall.

It does have a blurb replete with explanation if you’re into that sort of thing.

art blurb

Blurb or no blurb the dam wall is not going to have its show stolen by any sculpture.

dam wall

Reading the documentation we discovered there was a path to a lookout over the dam. Having come all this way we thought why not?

It’s a moderately challenging walk and I recommend wearing good shoes.

There’s also a moderately vicious magpie along the way which was a nice “welcome back to Australia” for the Tokyo Bureau Chief.

Once you get up to height it turns out you can see Telstrayama from there. (Which means you should be able to see the dam from Black Mountain now that I think about it)

telstrayama

The warning signs up top were particularly colourful.

warnings

Particularly when you look at the wire used on the fence.

not razor wire

Genuine razor wire was, however, found further down.

razor wire

Once out on the platform is was nice to observe the world’s loneliest staircase.

staircase

You could shoot a great science fiction movie on that there dam wall!

On the way down we enjoyed the diligent tagging work done a long way from town.

tagging

So it’s worth a look. Cotter Avenue is a picnickers delight, the dam wall is impressive, and it’s a good walk to the lookout.

More details on the Actew Water website.

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Roundhead89 said :

I’ve posted previously that this structure doesn’t look safe. The water behind the wall might put too much pressure on it. From one of the pics it looks like the water is already coming thru the wall. Oh dear.

LOL.
There are pipes travelling through the dam to keep the environmental flows in the river. All dams do leak to one degree or another but that ain’t water coming through the actual dam wall. If you look at it closely the water is coming from the left hand side of the photo into the stilling basin from a pipe.

Growling Ferret8:26 am 16 Oct 13

Roundhead

If the partially completed dam survived the floods of 18 months ago, you don’t think the fully completed dam could put up with the steady pressure it has been designed to withstand?

You make the right side of politics look really stupid, regularly.

I’ve posted previously that this structure doesn’t look safe. The water behind the wall might put too much pressure on it. From one of the pics it looks like the water is already coming thru the wall. Oh dear.

I think there should be more productivity from the Tokyo Bureau Chief, in terms of…whatever.

That being said, this is a lovely photographic essay.

Personally, I would just like to see the word ‘water’ on the dam wall in various fonts, and perhaps different languages.

But I am an accredited wanker, and proud of it…(-:

CC is on the money – its a cavitation abatement system to break the flow of the water that would otherwise destroy the wall through cavitation (Google cavitation if youre not lazy)

Is ‘Cotter Avenue’ any good these days? I remember it as having wonderful metal play equipment, a decent strip of grass for french cricket, and a pebbly weir you could walk across . . .

tim_c said :

And what are those 7 large holes in the wall about 2/3 the way up?

Aeration step – designed to prevent damage to the wall from water flow

dks00k said :

tim_c said :

And what are those 7 large holes in the wall about 2/3 the way up?

Thats where the Woden cats go for holiday

I thought sub woofers but I guess not then…

tim_c said :

And what are those 7 large holes in the wall about 2/3 the way up?

Thats where the Woden cats go for holiday

Nice pics JB – thanks.

Nice pics – it’s good to know the lookout is now open. According to the signage, there’s supposed to be a picnic area up past the lookout (on the slab where the concrete batching plant was) though it’s pedestrian access only so I can’t see many people dragging their picnic baskets up to it – does anyone know if this is area is open to the public yet?

And what are those 7 large holes in the wall about 2/3 the way up?

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