Harvey Dam

After our lunch at Stirling Cottage and after we had wandered around the gardens, we took a short drive out to the Harvey Dam. It is a really nice spot and there were quite a few families having a picnic lunch in the shade.

There is lots of grassed areas for sitting and playing on as well as lots of picnic tables,

 free electric bbq's and a children's playground.

The curved roof in the photo is the amphitheatre, which can be hired out for reunions,

business meetings and weddings. I didn't get a full photo of the amphitheatre as there 

was a lot of people in there.

In the background you can see the 45metre dam wall.

Harvey Dam

Holds 56 gigalitres.

Has 126 square kilometres of catchment area.

Has a surface area at full storage equal to 533 hectares.

The original Harvey Dam, was the sixth one to be built in Western Australia. Construction on it began in 1914 and it was completed two years later. It was built by 100 men using only horse and dray for all of the excavation works. An amazing feat! In 1931 work began to increase the size of the dam in order to increase the storage capacity. 

By the early 1990's it was realised that a new dam would need to be built as they needed to greatly increase storage capacity. It was originally planned for 2012, but had to be brought forward by fourteen years because of population growth. Harvey is lucky in that they have a relatively high and reliable rainfall to boost the dams storage.

Nice spot for a picnic lunch.

One of our many stunning Western Australian Kangaroo Paws (Anigozanthos)

The red was a bit harder to photograph to get a true colour.

It looked stunning mass planted in the garden beds.

In the background you can see how dry the paddocks are although not as dry

as what the paddocks here at home are.

In the front you can see the grass tree (xanthorrhoea) with it's tall flower spike.

I love the grass trees, they are very slow growing. Would love to have one in my

garden one day.

I have decided I definitely need lots more Kangaroo Paws in my garden. I have a few, but I need more. Funny how we used to take them for granted growing up, they were just part of the bush block. Those ones were the red and green and probably my all time favourite.

I have also come to the conclusion after Saturday's visit that we need to move back to this area. It really is a very pretty spot.