UNIQUE AND INTERESTING

ROSS RIVER DAM

The Ross River Dam is located 15km south-west of Townsville, in northern Queensland, Australia.

The river flows from Lake Ross, through the city of Townsville, into the Pacific Ocean. It is the major waterway flowing through Townsville, and supplies the main water source for the city, the Ross River Dam.

Ross River is a locality south-east of Ross Lake. Ross River virus, the agent responsible for Ross River fever, is named after the Ross River, as it was the place where the virus was first identified.

The Ross River Dam, aka Lake Ross, is the major source of water supply for the Townsville and Thuringowa cities. The dam was constructed at the junction of the Ross River and Five Head Creek. It was built to fulfill the two primary purposes of flood mitigation and water storage.

The river flows northward and bends east around Mount Stuart into the city. The Ross River has two distinctly different ecosystems. Above the Aplin's Weir is a fresh water environment and below the weir there is a salt water environment.

The Ross River Dam has a capacity of 214,000 mega litres covering approximately 8000 hectares and has an earth rock embankment 7.5km in length with a concrete spillway. The maximum height of the embankment is 27 metres. The catchments area is 75 000 hectares.



Water from the Ross River Dam Pump Station supplies up to 232 megalitres to the Douglas Water Treatment Plant where the water undergoes aeration, sedimentation, rapid sand filtration and chlorination treatment processes before it is pumped to the Douglas Reservoir System where the water is then distributed to Townsville and Thuringowa.




Ross River Dam is a very beautiful place and also the ideal place for picnic and outing. Usually in weekends I visit the dam and enjoy very much.