Chifley Dam coming up to three consecutive years at capacity

Bathurst Regional Council told the Western Advocate in March that Chifley Dam had been spilling for 29 months, going back to around September 2020, and the dam hasn't missed a beat in the months since.

Council's latest update, issued on June 6, said the dam was 100.1 per cent.

That comes after a dry May in which the Bathurst Airport weather station recorded only 9.8 millimetres over the entire month and after a hot end to summer in which the same weather station recorded 13 days of over 30 degrees in February.

That warmer trend continued into the start of autumn: 36.6 degrees was recorded on March 19.

Council's monthly Chifley Dam volume graph shows the most recent run of 100 per cent storage at the impoundment is the longest period of capacity, by far, in 20 years.

It also highlights the incredible turnaround in the dam after it dipped under 30 per cent in early 2020 during a period when the Macquarie River had stopped flowing just outside Bathurst.

Elsewhere in the region, Burrendong Dam, further down the Macquarie from Bathurst, is at 95 per cent; Wyangala Dam, on the Lachlan River south-west of Bathurst, is at 95 per cent; and Oberon Dam, on the Fish River at Oberon, is at 99 per cent.

A full dam will be welcomed by Bathurst Regional Council considering some of the recent warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology.

The bureau announced last week that there was now a 70 per cent chance of an El Nino developing this year, which would mean a higher chance of drier weather in eastern Australia and more of a likelihood of warmer than usual temperatures for the southern two-thirds of Australia.

Bureau senior climatologist Catherine Ganter said the long-range forecast for winter "also shows an increased chance of below average rainfall for almost all of Australia and the move to El Nino alert does not change this forecast".

Asked by the Western Advocate earlier this year about Chifley Dam still being above 100 per cent despite hotter and drier weather, Bathurst Regional Council said it did not come as a great shock.

"Council is not surprised that the usually productive Chifley Dam catchment of almost 1000 square kilometres has continued to provide water for the dam to keep spilling," council said.