Dumbarton Rock (Central Otago)
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The
Roxburgh Branch (Railway) Series.
This is another iconic spot in the Teviot
Valley.
This qualifies as one of the series as the the ledge that the
trains ran along can be seen up the rockface on your right, as you
face upriver.
Dumbarton Rock is the big rocky rampart on the West bank of the
Clutha River, opposite to the cache site.
W J Cowan. in his book
"Rails to Roxburgh"
has included, on page 60, a photograph of the spectacular moment
when a big chunk was blown off the rock face to aid in the creation
of the way for the rails.
The old ECNZ, at about the time of commissioning the Roxburgh Hydro
Dam in 1956, had a plan to build another "run of the river" dam at
Dumbarton Rock
The big matching rocky pillars on the opposite banks of the Clutha
were to provide stable anchoring points for a concrete dam.
Nowadays Contact Energy, who took over from ECNZ, have an
understandable preference for the much bigger storage type dams.
Hence they are working, it appears, towards putting a dam at either
Beaumont or, more likely, at Tuapeka Mouth.
These dams, each, would make for still water ponding back as far as
Millers Flat. The Tuapeka Mouth one would, in addition, drown
whatever remains of Beaumont and, presumably, the current Beaumont
Bridge.
Quote from their web page: We think a further
development on the Clutha River - in addition to the existing power
stations at Clyde and Roxburgh - represents one of the country's
best renewable options.
So, Contact has started discussing the possibility for further
hydro development with local communities. Through our website,
we've placed the information we inherited from the old ECNZ on the
Queensbury, Luggate, Beaumont and Tuapeka Mouth options in the
public domain and we've started to host a discussion around those
options.
So what about Dumbarton Rock?
Parsons Brinckerhoff Associates in 2005 produced the report listed
below:
HYDRO-ELECTRIC POTENTIAL IN NEW ZEALAND
A Hydro-Electric Resource Database
in which the Dumbarton Rock project, and many many others in NZ,
has hydro electric generation potential.
IMHO that's as far as it will ever go.
It's a 200ml clear Systema KLIP IT with logbook, pencil and
sharpener and a stash note.
Very limited roadside parking.
Additional Hints
()
Haqre ebpx orgjrra ebnq iretr & srapr.