Discovering the Cotter

Last Thursday with no preschool or blueberries dancing, I decided to do something different with the girls. So with a sunny day forecast initial plans involved heading down to the river for a picnic. After discussions with Belinda and Al this was revised to meet at Cotter Avenue for a play on the new playground and wander up to look at the new Cotter Dam wall. I hadn't really taken much notice of the new dam wall development until our visit and was pleased to learn a new thing or two!

The new dam wall will increase the the Cotter Reservoir's capacity from the current 4 gigalitres to around 78 gigalitres which is almost 20 times it's current size, thus hopefully securing Canberra's water supply. Planning on the dam began back in 2008 but pouring of concrete didn't begin until August 2011. Interestingly the flood in March this year submerged the old dam wall by 12m and the volume of water that spilled over the under construction new wall was enough to fill and overflow the new dam had it be finished.

Anyway, once the children had given the playground the once over, we were off to explore the Cotter Dam Discover Trail. Beginning by crossing the Cotter river, the pram friendly path meandered about 700m up to a small amphitheatre which also served as a viewing platform. From here we could watch the construction workers going about their business. Currently standing at 50m tall, the dam wall has another 30m to go. The finished Cotter Dam wall will stand about 80m tall equivalent to 26 storeys!

Crossing back over the Cotter River beneath the dam wall, we made our way slowly back to the playground area to finish off the morning with a BBQ.

Zoe, Max, Ella, Abby & Katy watching the diggers!