-
1945
Investigations begin about whether the Clutha River could potentially be dammed. -
1948
Construction/building of the Roxburgh dam begins. -
1959
Lake Hawea control dam is complete and put into use. Lake Hawea rises by 20m. -
1963
Huge investigations into building more dams from the lakes to the sea on the Clutha River.
30 proposed dam sites, 20 of these were costed out. -
1971
Reports are submitted outlining the environmental effects of damming the river. This is when a lot of the protesting began. -
1976
A site is selected for building the Clyde Dam -
1977
Bulldozers come in and start groundwork for the dam before ‘Water Right’ has been granted. -
1977
Later - Water Right is granted but for a low dam, not a high dam (which was what was being built) -
1979
Building begins on the right side of the dam (abutment - large concrete construction) -
1981
Government agrees to the construction of a high dam. -
1981
Government puts a tender out for the building of the dam. 7 recieved back - -
1982
A tender is accepted at a cost of 102.6 million dollars. -
1982
The fault line is discovered and the dam is redesigned to cope. This is the ‘slip joint’ that is located halfway across the dam. This allows for 2m of sideways and 1m of vertical movement. -
1987
Work on the dam peaks with over 1000 workers being employed on site. -
1990
Gorge stabilization work is completed. This is another extra cost. -
1993
The dam is complete and the reservoir is filled flooding the Cromwell gorge. -
1994
23 April - The dam is officially opened by -
1996
Electrocorp who had ownership of the dam is split into two state owned assets. Contact Energy is now the operator of Clyde and Roxburgh dams. -
2004
EME (Edison Mission Energy) from Australia gets 51.2% share holdings of Contact Energy. -
2009
Contact Energy release plans for another 5 dams on the Clutha river. -
2012
1 May - Contact Energy officially withdraws all plans for any more damming on the Clutha.