Winburndale Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Winburndale Rivulet

Winburndale Rivulet

The Winburndale Rivulet is a river of the state of New South Wales in Australia. It begins at the junction of the Kirkconnell and Mitchells Creeks to the West of Sunny Corner and flows in a westerly direction until it meets the Macquarie River to the East of Killongbutta.It is dammed to the East of...

 in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. Its height is 22 metres (72 ft) and holds back 1,700 megalitres of water. The dam is situated within the Winburndale Nature Reserve, 19 kilometres (11.8 mi) East of Bathurst, New South Wales

Bathurst, New South Wales

-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...

. There is no public access to the dam.

It is used to supply raw water to Bathurst for the watering of parks and industrial use.

History

After extensive and lengthy investigations of possible dam locations, construction of the Winburndale dam began in 1931. It was constructed using Unemployment Relief funds during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. As part of the construction of Winburndale dam, a 21 kilometres (13 mi) gravity fed wood stave pipeline was built from the dam to Bathurst.