Description

The Fitzroy River Barrage is a dam type structure built as part of the Camballin Irrigation Scheme. It was comprised of a series of collapsible shutters which were designed to collapse when the river level was approximately twelve inches over the shutters. The structure was intended to divert the water in the Fitzroy River to be stored in the Seventeen Mile Dam, by flowing up Uralla Creek, unnaturally in the opposite direction to the natural flow of the creek. The Camballin barrage is now used by Liveringa Station which has a current licence to impound and extract surface water for irrigated fodder. The barrage impounds water on the Fitzroy River and Uralla Creek (a tributary) acts as a feeder channel to divert water through a series of modified pools to the Inkarta irrigation channel where water is supplied to several centre-pivots. The offtake from the mainstream Fitzroy River at Uralla Creek has a sill that is permanently set at a level that regulates the amount of water diverted and maintains environmental water requirements for the Fitzroy River.