Canberra’s dams are 93.0% full (258.3 GL of 277.8 GL), down 0.3 points in a week; a year ago the same storages were 97.3% full.
4 storages reporting to the Bureau of Meteorology, latest reading 2026-09-27 15:00. Refreshed every 30 minutes.
Canberra’s water is held in four Icon Water storages, three on the Cotter River inside the ACT and Googong Reservoir on the Queanbeyan River across the border in New South Wales, and each has a row here with its latest volume, percentage and weekly change. Below the table are how Icon Water’s total compares with the Bureau’s ACT figure, what the Murrumbidgee to Googong pipeline does, the water conservation rules in force and the one storage where fishing is allowed.
Percentage full is the Bureau’s accessible volume divided by the accessible capacity, as on its storage dashboard, so it can differ by a point or two from the operator’s daily report, which is the official figure. Year ago is the same storage on the same date last year. Dams with a fishing page link to it.
| Storage | Full | Volume (ML) | Capacity (ML) | 7 days | Year ago | Updated | Fishing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Googong DamCanberra water supply (Icon Water) | 98.8% | 117,926 | 119,409 | −0.1 pts | 99.2% | 27 Sept | Googong Reservoir fishing report |
| Cotter DamCanberra water supply (Icon Water) | 100.0% above capacity | 76,197 | 76,197 | +0.0 pts | 100.0% | 27 Sept | No public fishing |
| Corin DamCanberra water supply (Icon Water) | 78.4% | 55,511 | 70,787 | +0.2 pts | 90.6% | 27 Sept | No public fishing |
| Bendora DamCanberra water supply (Icon Water) | 76.1% | 8,713 | 11,446 | −7.3 pts | 100.0% | 27 Sept | No public fishing |
Among storages of 5 GL or more.
90% and over60–90%30–60%under 30%no capacity published
Combined accessible volume of the 4 storages with a published capacity, as a percentage of their combined capacity, one value a day.
Corin Dam, in Namadgi National Park, is the first of the three dams on the Cotter River as the river runs towards Canberra. Icon Water describes it as an earth and rockfill embankment built in 1968 as a regulating supply for Bendora Dam, upgraded in 2016, holding 70,900 megalitres from a 197 square kilometre catchment. Its intake tower can draw from six depths, and the water it releases flows down the river to Bendora. Bendora Dam, a double curvature concrete arch finished in 1961, holds 11,400 megalitres and feeds the Mount Stromlo Water Treatment Plant through the Bendora Gravity Main, a 20 kilometre steel pipe laid in 1967 that carries up to 310 megalitres a day without pumping. Cotter Dam, lower down the river, dates from 1915; it was raised in 1949–51 and enlarged between 2009 and 2013 with a new 83 metre roller compacted concrete wall about 125 metres downstream of the old one, which took the reservoir from about 4 to 76 gigalitres. Cotter water has to be pumped up to Mount Stromlo through the Cotter Pumping Station. Googong Dam on the Queanbeyan River followed in 1979, when population projections showed the Cotter dams could no longer meet demand; it holds 119,400 megalitres and was upgraded in 1995 and again in 2010.
Icon Water aims to update its water storage page once a week, and its distribution engineers check the figures from the dams and from the Bureau of Meteorology before they are published, so the timing can vary. Its total covers all four storages. When the enlarged Cotter Dam came into the total, the combined capacity rose from 207 to 278 gigalitres, and Icon Water notes that the old capacity was around 65 per cent of the new maximum, so percentages from before and after the change rest on different totals. Icon Water also says its method is now aligned with the Bureau’s, counting only the volume above the minimum intake level. On that basis the enlarged Cotter holds 76.2 gigalitres of usable water, with a further 3.2 gigalitres reachable only in extreme situations, and the other dams have revised capacities of 70.8 gigalitres for Corin, 11.4 for Bendora and 119.4 for Googong. Those four figures agree with the Bureau’s accessible capacities to within about 0.1 gigalitres each, by our comparison. By the same arithmetic Googong accounts for about 43 per cent of the combined capacity, and Bendora for about 4 per cent, so a fall at Googong moves the total far more than the same fall at Bendora.
The Bureau’s note on Icon Water data explains the main difference: Icon Water’s aggregated total includes four storages, whereas the Bureau’s total for the Australian Capital Territory includes only the three that are physically in the ACT. Googong sits in New South Wales, so the Bureau files it under New South Wales even though it belongs to Canberra’s supply system. The same note says Icon Water’s volumes include dead storage, so the Bureau’s would be lower, but Icon Water’s own page now says it counts from the minimum intake level, as the Bureau does. When we compared the two on 28 September 2026, the combined figure on this page, built from the Bureau’s accessible volumes for all four storages, matched Icon Water’s combined dam level to within a few hundredths of a point. In practice the gap that matters is Googong. A total built from Corin, Bendora and Cotter alone can move differently from Icon Water’s four-storage figure, for instance when water pumped from the Murrumbidgee is raising Googong while the Cotter storages fall. This page lists all four storages, so a reader can see Canberra’s supply as Icon Water manages it and still compare each dam with the Bureau’s record.
Icon Water sources Canberra’s water from the Cotter River reservoirs, Googong Reservoir and the Murrumbidgee River, and treats it to the ACT Public Health (Drinking Water) Code of Practice 2007 and the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. The Murrumbidgee to Googong pipeline, known as M2G, is a 12 kilometre line that can move up to 100 megalitres a day from the Murrumbidgee into Googong Reservoir when needed. It runs about three kilometres through the ACT and nine through New South Wales, from Angle Crossing on the Murrumbidgee to the Williamsdale Road crossing of Burra Creek, and was completed and commissioned in August 2012 as one of the water security projects started during the Millennium Drought. Icon Water’s storage page notes that the M2G transfer supplements Googong’s level, so a rise at Googong in a dry spell may be pumped river water rather than inflow. Icon Water runs it when needed, and its latest update records a run to maintain the pipeline that began on Monday 6 July 2026, with the line returned to standby mode on Friday 10 July.
Canberra and Queanbeyan are under Permanent Water Conservation Measures whenever temporary restrictions are not in force. Icon Water says the measures are similar to Stage 1 restrictions in other regions, that they are mandatory and enforceable, and that fines may apply under the Utilities (Water Conservation) Regulation 2006. Above them sits a four-stage scheme of temporary restrictions, applied when supplies are scarce; decisions weigh the water available, weather forecasts, consumption and other factors. Icon Water’s restriction history shows how that played out in the Millennium Drought: Stage 1 from December 2002, alternating Stage 2 and Stage 3 periods until October 2005, a year under the permanent measures, then Stage 2 and Stage 3 from November 2006 to August 2010, Stage 2 again in September and October 2010, and Enhanced Permanent Water Conservation Measures from November 2010, which Icon Water’s table still lists as current. The enlarged Cotter Dam was built, in Icon Water’s words, so the ACT could deal with future droughts without having to endure high-level restrictions.
The ACT Government divides the territory’s public waters into prohibited, open and trout waters, and no licence is needed in the ACT itself. Fishing is prohibited at all times on the Cotter River from the new Cotter Dam wall up to the Condor Creek junction, the Cotter reservoir included, and on the Cotter River and its catchment above Bendora Dam wall, which takes in both Bendora and Corin reservoirs. Icon Water’s page for Corin adds that fishing, swimming and boating are prohibited there to prevent contamination of the city’s drinking water. Between the two closed reaches, the Cotter below Bendora Dam down to Condor Creek is trout water, fished with artificial fly or lure only from the start of the October Labour Day long weekend to the end of the June King’s Birthday weekend. Googong is the storage anglers can use. The ACT Government notes that fishing there is governed by NSW law and needs a NSW recreational fishing licence, and ACT Parks, which manages the foreshores under an agreement with the NSW and Commonwealth governments, allows sailboats, canoes, kayaks and electric-powered boats, with an ACT Government permit for motor boating. Swimming is not allowed in the reservoir, only in the Queanbeyan River below the dam wall, and dogs and horses must stay at home.
Each of the four rows, Corin, Bendora, Cotter and Googong, carries the Bureau of Meteorology’s most recent volume and percentage along with the change over the past week. Icon Water publishes its own combined figure for the four storages, which it aims to update once a week.
The Bureau’s ACT total counts only Corin, Bendora and Cotter, the three storages inside the territory. Icon Water’s total also includes Googong, which lies in New South Wales and holds about 43 per cent of the combined capacity.
Corin, Bendora and Cotter on the Cotter River and Googong on the Queanbeyan River, all run by Icon Water. Icon Water can also draw on the Murrumbidgee River, including through the M2G pipeline into Googong.
Permanent Water Conservation Measures apply in Canberra and Queanbeyan whenever temporary restrictions are not in force, and Icon Water lists its enhanced measures as current since November 2010. They are mandatory, and fines may apply.
Only at Googong, under NSW rules and with a NSW recreational fishing licence. Corin, Bendora and Cotter reservoirs are ACT prohibited waters where fishing is not allowed at any time.
Data: Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online and the Australian Water Storages dataset, © Commonwealth of Australia, CC BY; volumes supplied by © Icon Water. Where the Bureau lists no capacity, or its capacity and volume are on different bases, a row shows the volume only. Text by Pablo Ruiz Quintero.
The facts on this page were checked against these pages, from the agencies, park services and operators that manage the water on 28 September 2026; anything we could not verify was taken out. Written by Pablo Ruiz Quintero. Errors are published in the verification log.