Travel: Barossa Dam, SA

When it was being built way back between 1899 and 1902, it is highly unlikely the engineers of the day had any idea of the very special acoustic qualities they were incorporating into a fascinating dam wall southeast of Gawler in SA.

At first glance the Barossa Dam wall, also known as the Whispering Wall, arching across a gorge known as Yettie Creek, looks pretty much like many other dam walls seen elsewhere around the country. Its real fascination, even magical qualities, however, become obvious when you stand at one end of the gently curving wall and speak.

Anything you say, even in quite low whispers, reverberates around the full 140m length of the structure to be clearly heard by someone standing right across at the other side – a truly phenomenal experience.

Clearly the curved, slender design of the wall, which holds back thousands of litres of water of the Barossa Reservoir, plays a part in its special features, but it is quite unclear as to exactly why, or how, in its construction, the wall’s built-in acoustics were created – there is no known dam wall in either Australia or elsewhere overseas that has been able to replicate this dam’s unique and quite magical qualities.

While the reason for the wall’s secret powers may never be known with certainty, it is suspected it could have something to do with its quiet location, the fact that large boulders were used as fill in the construction to save on concrete … and in the thin upper section of its 36m high wall, many kilometres of old, second hand tramway rails were used as a reinforcement in the concrete layers.

Whatever the reason, a visit to SA’s Whispering Wall is an interesting and intriguing experience.

Barrosa Dam Fast Facts

When completed in 1902 the Barossa Reservoir Wall was the highest arch dam in Australia and one of the first true arch dams to be built anywhere in the world.

The construction of this dam was truly innovative and such a real engineering feat of its time that it featured on the front page of the New York Journal Engineering News in April 1904 and shortly afterwards in Scientific American.

A safe, fully hand-railed walkway spans the top of the dam wall allowing those who visit to easily walk to the other side, both to enjoy the view and to experience the wall’s whispering qualities.

The Barossa Reservoir dam retains up to 4510 mega litres of water (the equivalent of 4500 Olympic size swimming pools) with a water spread area of 62 hectares.