Silvan Reservoir

The Silvan Reservoir is located in Silvan about east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It has a capacity of. The reservoir is operated by Melbourne Water.

Operations

Silvan is an off-stream storage reservoir, meaning that most of the water is sourced from other reservoirs. That is because the actual catchment area of for Silvan is small. Water for Silvan is transferred from the Upper Yarra, O'Shannassy and Thomson reservoirs.
In turn, Silvan directly supplies water to many of Melbourne's eastern suburbs, as well as other off-stream storage reservoirs, including Cardinia and Greenvale.

History

A severe drought in 1914 forced the state government to search for a new water supply to handle Melbourne's ever-increasing needs. Construction took place between 1926 and 1931, and the reservoir was officially opened on 7 July 1931. The reservoir was long, wide, creating a water storage that is deep.
In 1983, the dam wall started to show cracks and remedial works were undertaken. A picnic ground was added to the Silvan Reservoir Park at that time, which is now managed by Parks Victoria.