Border Rivers Commission

The water infrastructure controlled by the BRC on behalf of the states is:

Glenlyon Dam

Glenlyon Dam, located in Queensland on Pike Creek approximately 7 kilometres upstream of its junction with the Dumaresq River, was constructed by the BRC during the period 1972-1976.  In naming the dam, the BRC considered it appropriate that it should commemorate a name closely associated with first settlement in the area.  Glenlyon Dam, and all of the water stored by it, are located on what was the original ‘Glenlyon’ holding taken up by Alexander McLeod in 1844.

The storage capacity of Glenlyon Dam is 254,000 megalitres.  It is an earth and rockfill dam, 62 metres high, with a spillway located on the right abutment with a discharge capacity at dam crest level of 527,000 megalitres/day.

Water from Glenlyon Dam is released downstream along the Dumaresq, Macintyre and Barwon Rivers (to Mungindi).  The dam provides water supplies for both Queensland and New South Wales irrigators, commercial water users, riparian landholders and a number of towns.

Boggabilla Weir

Boggabilla Weir is located on the Macintyre River near the New South Wales township of Boggabilla, approximately nine kilometres upstream of Goondiwindi.  The weir, which has a storage capacity of 5,850 megalitres, was constructed by the BRC between 1990 and 1991 to re-regulate releases from Glenlyon Dam and to conserve unregulated inflows.

Boggabilla Weir is a reinforced concrete structure with five vertical lift steel gates.  It was constructed in the ‘dry’ in a bend in the river.  Following completion of the weir, an earth block dam was placed across the old river channel to divert water through the new structure.  Boggabilla Weir incorporates a vertical slot fishway to allow upstream fish migration to continue.

Other structures

The BRC also controls a number of small fixed-crest weirs and regulators along the Border Rivers as well as eight regulators on the Intersecting Streams which were constructed in 1974 to ensure a better distribution of stock and domestic supplies for riparian landholders on the Culgoa‑Balonne Minor distributary system downstream of St George.

Last updated: 07 Jul 2022