The Hāwea Dam
In the 1950s, Lake Hāwea was to supply water to the electricity generators at the planned Clyde dam and the existing Roxburgh dam.
The dam building began in 1955, and the Gladstone Gap emergency spillway (fuse plug) – a gravel dam - was built in 1956. The lake was raised about six metres, reaching this by 1958.
Lake Hāwea dam construction
The Ministry of Works housed the dam-builders in a new village in Timsfield, which Claude Capell made available. The village was vacated after the dam was built, many of the houses being removed to the new Otematata site, where the Benmore dam was to be built, and the post office was moved by Darcy Hodgkinson to The Nook. Only a few single mens’ huts remained. The community at Timsfield had a dairy, a post office and a grocery shop, as well as its own community hall, where clubs met, travelling salespeople set up shops and the district nurse was permanently established. While the Timsfield community lasted, the Hāwea Flat school roll swelled, and friendships were formed between the local residents and the dam building families.
The building of the dam and the raising of the lake brought advantages to the country’s need for electricity, but it also brought local problems. For instance, much of the good lower land of the stations around the lake was lost, and the run-holders were paid only a tiny compensation. Leslie Burdon, of Glen Dene station, reported that they were paid four pounds ($8.00) per acre for land lost, and the lake level was dropped during 1978 to below its natural low level. The resulting dust storms were felt far down-country from the lake, while local stock and people suffered greatly from the clouds of dust. This resulted in the formation of the Guardians of Lake Hāwea, which worked hard to persuade the government of the time to regulate the levels within which the water could be managed.
Lake Hāwea after the dam was completed, with trees above the waterline, 1957
At present Contact Energy must control the lake level between 338 and 346 metres above sea level. The outflow is controlled between 10 cumecs and 200 cumecs, and cannot go above 60 cumecs during the summer season. Water is released monthly for kayaking at The Wave, or during special competition times.
The Riley family, of Timaru Station, were forced to abandon their run as its productive section and the track connecting the homestead with the working part of the station, at the Dingle valley, went under water. The Ministry of Works established Dingleburn Station, the licence of which was later sold to Ian Sarginson. Several holiday cottages at John Creek, as well as the Hodgkinson family farm at the south-west corner of the lake, were also lost.
Both trout and salmon had been released in the lake during the early days, and these remain there, unable to leave the lake in order to spawn in the ocean, but they still provide occupation for the several fishing guides, and for sport fishermen who visit the area. The native long-finned eels cannot breed out of the lake, as they did previously, although Contact Energy, aware of the problem, is placing elvers into the Clutha downstream of the Clyde dam. It remains to be seen whether Lake Hāwea receives new generations.
Plans to generate electricity from the Lake Hāwea dam were shelved during the early twenty-first century, in response to a change in the country’s economy.