THE Dartmouth Dam, the largest storage in the Murray-Darling Basin, is spilling for the first time in 26 years, as floodwaters rise across the nation’s biggest river system.
The Victorian alpine dam, which holds up to four million megalitres of water, is the source of about 10 per cent of the Murray River’s inflows.
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority said the dam, which has been full since early August, had spilled four times since its completion in 1979, each being during the 1990s. The last spill was in 1996.
Dartmouth feeds the Murray via the Mitta Mitta River.
The future impact of Murray, Darling and Murrumbidgee floods on Sunraysia is not yet clear, but Vic Emergency has issued a minor flood warning for the Murray, from Barham to Wentworth, and the NSW State Emergency Service has done the same for parts of the upper Murray.
Releases from Hume Dam on the upper Murray are now above 43,000 megalitres a day. The daily release was increased to 33,000ML less than a week ago and releases at this time last year were just 10,000ML a day.
Minor flooding was recorded at Albury, Corowa and Barham over the weekend.
Wentworth is also expecting floodwaters coming down the Darling River. The river is now flooding at Menindee and Pooncarie, and flood warnings remain current upstream all the way to Mungindi, on the NSW-Queensland border, which is expecting a fresh flood peak in the coming days.
