History
The Burnett River area was historically inhabited by the Taribelang Aboriginal tribe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnett_River).
Paradise Dam
Built in 2005 for $240 million , 300,000-megalitre Paradise Dam was constructed to supply water to the Bundaberg region. The concrete dam wall is up to 37.1 metres (122 ft) high and spans approximately 600 metres (2,000 ft).
The dam has a fishway installed in an attempt to allow the movement of fish upstream and downstream of the dam wall including the endangered and significant Queensland lungfish.
In 2019 the Dam wall was found to be structurally unstable posing a risk to downstream communities, in 2021 remediation works commence to repair the wall.
Current Capacity of the Dam can be found on the SunWater website: https://www.sunwater.com.au/dams/Paradise-Dam/
Paradise Township
The town of Paradise (which is now under water in the dam) was settled to mine gold in 1888 along the southern bank of the Burnett River and was abandoned less than a decade later in 1896. At its peak, some 600 people dwelt there.
“There was a school, and major buildings along its main thoroughfare Allen Street (named after the town’s European founders and the discoverers of gold there). The town had numerous hotels, a community hall, post office, police station, courthouse (the top floor of which is now the Biggenden Historical Museum), at least two butchers, three carpenters, and seven mining companies, as well as a lemonade factory, a sawmill, and any number of grocers, tobacconists, drapers, dressmakers, dentists, shoemakers and stationers.”
Prangnell, J. M., Cheshire, L. A., Quirk, K. A., Paradise: Life on a Queensland Goldfield (2005); Jonathan Pragnell and Kate Quirk, ‘Children in Paradise: Growing Up on the Australian Goldfields’, (2009) 43 Historical Archaeology, 38.
Burnett River
The Burnett river flows for at least 435 km with a huge basin size 32,220 km2 – the River has often flooded with significant floods impacting the town of Bundaberg in “…January 1942, February 1971, December 2010, January 2011, and January 2013 . During the January 2013 event, flood depths of up to 3 m and high flow velocities (up to 5m/s) were experienced in parts of North Bundaberg. During the event, a large number of people were evacuated including approximately 5000 residents from North Bundaberg. In addition, the January 2013 flood resulted in a significant amount of flood damage including inundation of over 4000 homes.” (https://www.bundaberg.qld.gov.au/burnett-river-flood-information)
River heights can be found on the Bureau of Meteorology website http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/flood/rain_river.shtml (click on “Burnett”)
European History.
The river is named after the first European explorer to visit the river in 1847, James Charles Burnett.
Water Supply
The Burnett River and dams provide important water for food production in the Bundaberg region.
In 2015-16, agricultural production was $613.4 million. This includes vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and capsicum), fruit (Avocados and oranges, nuts (the region is well known for its macadamias), sugarcane and livestock.
Oasis Adventures acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land and waters on which we work, play and live; the Taribelang, the Wulli Wulli, Goereng Goereng, Djaku-nde, Jangerie Jangerie, Kabbi Kabbi, Gurang, Wakka Wakka, Byeeli peoples. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and future; and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
