History of the Serpentine Dams In the late 1950s, Perth was on the brink of the rapid industrial growth which changed it in a matter of years into a bustling, modern city.
The Kwinana industrial area south of the city was then in its infancy but growing at such a rate that new water sources were urgently needed. Planners saw the potential of the Serpentine River as a major water supply source and so began the Serpentine Scheme. The project aimed to increase storage capacity in the Hills by 170 per cent. This scale made it the biggest construction project undertaken by the then Water Authority since 1940, when Canning Dam had been completed.
The first stage was a Pipehead Dam, seven kilometres upstream from the Serpentine Falls. The official opening of the Pipehead Dam in 1957 also marked the beginning of work on the Serpentine Main Dam which was finished in 1961. The main dam’s capacity of 137.7 million kilolitres, makes it one of the biggest supplying the Perth metropolitan area. Water from the Serpentine Scheme is piped under gravity to the city from the Pipehead Dam through two 55 kilometre long pipelines.
Capacity: 194,500,000 Cubic Metres
Date Commenced: November 1957
Date Completed: October 1961
Length at Top of Bank: 424m
Width at Top of Bank: 11m
Width at Base of Bank: 350m
Height: Stream Bed to top of Bank 52m
Top Water Level: 216.98m A.H.D.
Area of Water Basin: 1280Ha
Area of Catchment: 664Km
Quantity of Fill, Bank: 1,450,000 Cubic Metre
WaterCorp info on Serpentine Dam can be found here