The ambitious Australian reservoir that failed its original mission

Countries & Cities · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Designed to transform the Kimberley into a rice-exporting powerhouse, Lake Argyle faced an unexpected adversary: hungry waterfowl. Today, this massive man-made reservoir stands as a vital wetland, but its history is a complex tale of engineering triumphs, agricultural setbacks, and shifting ecosystems.

Completed in 1971 by the Dravo Corporation, the Ord River Dam was engineered as the centerpiece of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme. The dam wall, an earth-fill structure measuring 335 metres long and 98 metres high, is noted for its extreme efficiency, providing a high ratio of water storage relative to the wall's size. While the project was intended to irrigate the surrounding plains for crops like rice, the plan was famously disrupted by nature. Magpie geese and other waterfowl found the rice shoots so palatable that they consumed the crops faster than they could be planted, leading to the current use of other tropical crops.

The reservoir's scale is immense. Under normal conditions, it covers approximately 1,000 square kilometres, with a storage capacity of 5,797 gigalitres. However, at maximum flood levels, the surface area could expand to 2,072 square kilometres. To manage the massive volume, the spillway wall was raised by 6 metres in 1996, a move that doubled the dam's capacity. This expansion followed mid-1990s concerns that sediment inflow might significantly reduce the reservoir's utility, a threat that appeared to subside by 2006 due to the regeneration of the upper Ord catchment.

Beyond its agricultural role, the lake has become a critical ecological site. Recognized under the Ramsar Convention in 1990, the area supports roughly 150,000 waterbirds and an estimated 25,000 freshwater crocodiles. While the reservoir's creation altered river flows, it fostered a thriving new ecosystem. However, the site faces modern pressures from invasive species, such as cane toads that arrived in 2008, and the potential overgrazing by feral ungulates and cattle in the shallow margins.

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