Damming

By Leytoz

  • 1945

    Investigations begin about whether the Clutha River could potentially be dammed.

  • 1948

    Construction/building of the Roxburgh dam begins.

  • 1959

    Lake Hawea control dam is complete and put into use. Lake Hawea rises by 20m.

  • 1963

    Huge investigations into building more dams from the lakes to the sea on the Clutha River.
    30 proposed dam sites, 20 of these were costed out.

  • 1971

    Reports are submitted outlining the environmental effects of damming the river. This is when a lot of the protesting began.

  • 1976

    A site is selected for building the Clyde Dam

  • 1977

    Later - Water Right is granted but for a low dam, not a high dam (which was what was being built)

  • 1977

    Bulldozers come in and start groundwork for the dam before ‘Water Right’ has been granted.

  • 1979

    Building begins on the right side of the dam (abutment - large concrete construction)

  • 1981

    Government agrees to the construction of a high dam.

  • 1981

    Government puts a tender out for the building of the dam. 7 recieved back -

  • 1993

    The dam is complete and the reservoir is filled flooding the Cromwell gorge.

  • 1996

    Electrocorp who had ownership of the dam is split into two state owned assets. Contact Energy is now the operator of Clyde and Roxburgh dams.

  • 2012

    1 May - Contact Energy officially withdraws all plans for any more damming on the Clutha