The Dams
The pump at the main dam is 163 metres from the concrete holding tank and as the name implies is the largest of the three dams. The water from all of the dams is pumped to the 22,500 litre concrete tank on the highest point on the property. From this tank it is gravity fed to the gardens, orchard and the flush toilet in the house.
We are really not sure how much the main dam can hold but estimate that it is capable of holding about 2500 cubic metres of water.
This photo was taken in late November 2002 during the worst drought in the area for over twenty years.
The line of rushes around the side of the dam is where the maximum water level line should be at this time of the year so the drought is affecting us to some degree but not as bad as others who rely on their dams for stock water.
The second photo of the main dam was taken facing south and shows the pump driven by a 5.5hp petrol motor that pumps the water to the holding tank.
The 50mm poly pipe that is used for the delivery from the pump allows us to full the concrete holding tank with one fuel tank of petrol in about fifty minutes. Before we installed the 50mm pipe there was a combination of 40 and 25mm pipes acting as the delivery and it took just under three tanks of fuel to pump the same amount of water.
It is important to size the delivery pipe to your pump and its motor or it becomes costly in both time and fuel and in the long term the maintainence on the pump and its motor.
The new dam was constructed in January of 2002 and as can be seen by the above photo that was taken on the 26th of December 2002 we are still waiting for rain to fill it.
We are not sure yet if we will pump the water from the new dam into the main dam and then pump to the holding tank or pump direct from the new dam via the 50mm pipe to the holding tank. A lot will depend on the amount of push our pump has.
The depth of the new dam when full will be about 2.7 metres and the overflow is at the end of the dam wall above the dogs head.
The third dam which is not shown is not capable of holding water for long periods and the water from it would only be used if there was the need to pump to either of the other dams.