Lake St Clair Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Lake St. Clair is one of the most spectacular and accessible bodies of water in the Hunter. In 1983 it was formed by the Glennies Creek Dam which plays an important role in improving the supply of water for homes, farms and industry in the Hunter Valley.
Cache is located quite close to the road leading to the Lake St Clair Park (picnic area / camping). It's between the road and lake.
Accessing the cache will require some level of fitness, though the traverse is not long. Beware of steep drops & slopes and loose stones, the area is mainly conglomerate rock. Depending on approach you may need to negotiate an old fence, however the cache is not known to be on private property. You will be wise to approach GZ from the West or East.
Please BYO pen or similar to log cache just in case.
The views of the lake and surrounds from this area are quite good.
The Dam wall is located 25km from Singleton via Bridgman Road or 39km upstream from the junction of Glennies Creek and the Hunter River.
The creek and dam are named after James Glennie, a former captain in the Royal Navy who was granted creek frontage land near the Hunter River junction in 1824. The lake takes its name from the historic St Clair homestead now inundated by the waters. Bushranger Joe Governor was shot near St Clair in 1900, a cache location is found at his grave: (visit link)
Just upstream from Glennies Creek Dam, Fal Brook and Carrow Brook join to form Glennies Creek. The valley behind the dam, known as St Clair, was settled and cleared more than a century ago for grazing and cultivation.
Coal mining and agriculture, which both use large volumes of water, have been important industries in the Hunter Valley since Europeans first settled here. As these industries expanded, the demand for water increased. In addition, the population of the valley increased, so more water was also needed for people.
In 1958, the Department of Water Resources built Glenbawn Dam to supply water for industry, irrigation, stock and household use in the Hunter Valley. This dam is on the Hunter River upstream of Glennies Creek.
By the 1970's Glenbawn Dam could no longer satisfy the Hunter Valley's demand for water. Another dam was needed to increase the water supply, and the site on Glennies Creek was selected. The Department of Water Resources began constructing Glennies Creek Dam in August 1980 and it was completed by June 1983.
Facts and Figures
North of Singleton in the foothills of the Barrington Tops National Park, the lake provides an expanse of water 15 kilometres long and up to 3 kilometres wide. It has a storage capacity of 283,000 million litres. For The Sydney-centric, this about half the volume of Sydney Harbour. The dam wall is 67 metres high (which is as tall as the highest sail on the Sydney Opera House). When full, the lake has a surface area of 1620 ha, or more than two thousand football fields.
Glennies Creek Dam is a curved earth and rockfill embankment with a concrete slab on the upstream face to prevent water from seeping through. A 60 metre high control tower with variable level inlets allows the quality and temperature of water released from the dam to be selected. This protects the animal and plant life within the river downstream of the dam by ensuring that the water released is similar to the water they would inhabit naturally.
Want more details?
Maximum water depth is 56 metres.
Catchment area is around 23,300 hectares.
Height of dam wall is 67 metres.
Length of crest is 535 metres.
Recreational Activities
The lake provides a venue for many aquatic pursuits: rowing, canoeing, sailing, windsurfing, water skiing, swimming, power boating and fishing. It has been stocked with bass (around 25000 fingerlings in 1998) and perch. Nestled among the undulating hills, the foreshores of the lake provide attractive areas for picknicking and barbecues. The road following the eastern shoreline is a particularly scenic drive.
The recreation area has free electric barbecue, hot water, showers and toilet facilities. Camping can be enjoyed at the Lake. Entry fees apply here. Nearby accommodation is limited, but there is some available at Callicoma Hill to the North.
The magnificent setting also provides launch sites for hand gliding and has been the venue for national titles. Other recreational activities include bushwalking, horseriding, birdwatching and nature study.
Geotechnical Stuff: The dam is a concrete faced, rock fill embankment dam.
Glennies Creek Dam spillway is an unlined cutting in welded ash flow tuff which supplied the entire rock fill requirement for the construction of the dam embankment. The spillway excavation was designed to be located entirely in welded tuff and not to encroach on either the underlying non-welded tuff or the overlying sandstone, both of these rock types being much inferior to the welded tuff as a rock fill construction material. Tuff is rock formed from fine-grained pyroclastic particles (ash and dust) - volcanic byproduct.
Contacts:
For more information about Glennies Creek Dam contact:
The Officer in Charge
Department of Water Resources
Glennies Creek Dam via Singleton NSW 2330
Phone: 02 6577 3172
Fax : 02 6577 3034
For more information about camping sites contact:
Lake St Clair Camping Area
Phone: 02 6577 3370
As the lake provides an excellent venue for fishing, so the original cache contents are themed in this fashion, would like to keep the theme going if possible!
For the fisherers: Lake St Clair will remain a mecca for fishing enthusiasts. NSW State Fisheries and local fishing clubs make regular releases into the lake of Australian Bass and Golden and Silver Perch fingerlings. The Dam is devoid of standing timber in large numbers. Most can be found close to the shore line, but then again this is where the Bass and Yellowbellies live. The foreshores of the lake provide the most attractive areas for fishing. Spinner Baits have proved to be very successful as you walk the Southern banks in particular. The banks below the road following the eastern shoreline is a particularly productive area early morning. Nestled among the undulating hills, the Dam is reasonably protected and in most conditions is quite suitable for the small tinnie or canoe.
This cache is also a waypoint for my Mystery Cache: Longview
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Tbbq TCF fvtanyf ng TM ner abg fgbat, gur ernfba jvyy or boivbhf jura lbh ner pybfr. Uvqqra oruvaq fhfcvpvbhf ybbxvat fgbarf.