Aroona Dam Paddling Trail

Aroona Dam 
The origin of its name is not mentioned in sources. However, the word ‘Aroona’ is listed in the official government place name gazetteer as the name of some geographic features either adjoining the dam or located within its extent. A mountain, Mount Aroona, is located in the ridge on the north side of the dam’s lake. A former water feature is now located “under the waters of the Aroona Dam” is named as the Aroona Waterhole as well as having the Adnyamathanha name of Arrunha Awi.

It was designed and built by the Electricity Trust of South Australia from 1952 to 1957 by damming the Arrunha Creek (also known as Aroona Creek in one source and as Scott Creek in another source) and using a labour force consisting mainly of immigrants engaged by contract for two-years and which peaked at a maximum of 160 men. Two shifts were scheduled during the winter months while concrete pouring was not conducted between November and March due to “extreme heat.”

Its original purpose was to supply the original town of Leigh Creek and the Leigh Creek Coalfield which was relying on artesian water from Sliding Creek located about 45 km south-east of the current town of Leigh Creek. In 2004, it was reported as storing and supplying water to “Leigh Creek, Copley and Lyndhurst, the coalfield and several neighboring pastoral properties” and this was being augmented in respect to Leigh Creek by water from a flooded mine at Sliding Rock. However, in late 2016, it was advised that “water from Aroona dam will not be used for the town water supply” and that artesian water treated in a reverse osmosis desalination plant located near the Leigh Creek township would be used.

In 1995, it and adjoining land covering an area of 43 square kilometers were declared as a sanctuary under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 known as the Aroona Sanctuary.
(an extract from Wikipedia)

Aroona Dam has also featured in TripAdvisor with a number of visitors stumbling across this ‘gem’ of a place, an ‘unexpected’ lake set in beautiful hills and a place of ‘respite from the desert’.

Information about Aroona Dam Sanctuary (‘Aroona Dam Sanctuary – a vision splendid (PDF)’) has also been published by the SA Department for Environment and Heritage. The information featured here is very useful for visitors wanting to explore and experience this northern area of the Flinders Ranges and see how the area has been brought back to nature.

Aroona Dam consists of a concrete gravity dam of a height of 24 metres and a width of 236 metres which holds back a lake of a volume of 7,500 megalitres and which extends for a distance of about 3.5 km to the east of the dam wall.