O'Shannassy Reservoir


The O'Shannassy Reservoir is an Australian man-made water supply dammed reservoir. The water store across the O'Shannassy River is located near the locality of, approximately east of Melbourne, Victoria. The dam that creates the impoundment is called the O'Shannassy Dam.

Location and features

The reservoir is part of Melbourne's water supply system. Water flows under gravity to Silvan Reservoir, then to storage and distribution reservoirs around Melbourne. It is the smallest of the water storage reservoirs managed by Melbourne Water, with a capacity of approximately, but it is on a very productive catchment, with stream flow averaging per annum.
The location was selected as it is at sufficient altitude for gravity supply to the elevated eastern suburbs of Melbourne. A diversion weir on the O'Shannassy River and aqueduct to the Surrey Hills Reservoir in Melbourne were completed in 1914. The weir was complimented by the construction of the dam and its reservoir in 1928, but the weir was still used to divert river flows into the aqueduct. The construction of the Yarra-Silvan conduits in the 1950s resulted in reduced requirements for the aqueduct which was decommissioned in 1997.