Constructed in 1931, the dam is used as a secondary water supply source for the city of Orange. To meet additional demand, the dam was raised in 1947, increasing its capacity from 2700M litres to 4500M litres.
The proposed upgrades to the flood handling capacity include raising the earthfill embankment and increasing the spillway capacity to discharge floods with a return frequency of 1:10,000 magnitude. A three bay fuse plug arrangement is being used to provide this increase.
