Darwin River Dam level
CURRENT
YEAR AVG
PREVIOUS
YEAR AVG
Flooding and spillway
The majority of Darwin’s drinking water is sourced from the Darwin River Dam, while the remainder is supplied from groundwater from the McMinns and Howard East borefields.
It’s not uncommon for the spillway to overflow late in the wet season. As the Dam is not gated, the flow into the spillway cannot be regulated. When the spillway overflows, river levels downstream of the dam may rise rapidly. This may cause sudden changes in levels at road crossings downstream of the dam. During these events, this information is provided by Secure NT.
Public access
The Darwin River Dam site is closed to the public to protect the catchment and ensure that we can continue to deliver safe and secure drinking water to the Darwin community.
Our obligations under national health and safety legislation and reservoir and drinking water safety standards led us to close the dam to the public. However, we maintain managed visitation through prearranged bookings of supervised groups, for example for educational purposes.
A safety induction for school groups and other authorised visitors can be accessed here.
