South East Queensland’s dams are 81.1% full (2,087 GL of 2,574 GL), down 0.6 points in a week; a year ago the same storages were 84.5% full.
24 storages reporting to the Bureau of Meteorology, latest reading 2026-09-27 10:04. Refreshed every 30 minutes.
This table covers the Seqwater dams reported to the Bureau of Meteorology, from Wivenhoe and Somerset on the Brisbane River to the small reservoirs of the Sunshine Coast hinterland and the Scenic Rim, with volume, per cent full, level and the week’s change for each. Further down: how Seqwater’s Water Grid figure is put together, why Wivenhoe and Somerset stop short of 100 per cent, when each source updates and which lakes you can fish.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wivenhoe DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 81.1% | 945,417 | 1,165,238 | −0.6 pts | 84.3% | 27 Sept | Lake Wivenhoe fishing report |
| Somerset DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 79.0% | 300,233 | 379,849 | −0.5 pts | 78.8% | 27 Sept | Lake Somerset fishing report |
| Hinze DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 95.9% | 297,925 | 310,730 | −0.4 pts | 96.3% | 27 Sept | Hinze Dam fishing report |
| North Pine Dam (Lake Samsonvale)South East Queensland (Seqwater) | 48.8% | 104,532 | 214,302 | −0.4 pts | 50.2% | 27 Sept | Lake Samsonvale (North Pine Dam) fishing report |
| Wyaralong DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 96.0% | 98,783 | 102,883 | −0.3 pts | 99.2% | 27 Sept | Wyaralong Dam fishing report |
| Moogerah DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 77.4% | 64,869 | 83,765 | −0.9 pts | 98.1% | 27 Sept | Lake Moogerah fishing report |
| Baroon Pocket DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 93.2% | 56,874 | 61,000 | −0.9 pts | 92.0% | 27 Sept | Baroon Pocket Dam fishing report |
| Borumba DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 97.8% | 44,999 | 46,000 | −0.5 pts | 99.7% | 27 Sept | Borumba Dam fishing report |
| Maroon DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 98.8% | 43,780 | 44,319 | −0.4 pts | 99.8% | 27 Sept | Lake Maroon fishing report |
| Atkinson DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 61.5% | 18,688 | 30,401 | −1.6 pts | 97.7% | 27 Sept | — |
| Lake ManchesterSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 88.3% | 23,141 | 26,217 | −0.2 pts | 99.0% | 27 Sept | — |
| Clarendon DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 68.6% | 16,663 | 24,276 | −1.4 pts | 97.0% | 27 Sept | — |
| Ewen Maddock DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 92.9% | 15,416 | 16,587 | −0.8 pts | 95.4% | 27 Sept | Ewen Maddock Dam fishing report |
| Sideling Creek Dam (Lake Kurwongbah)South East Queensland (Seqwater) | 96.4% | 13,682 | 14,192 | −0.6 pts | 96.6% | 27 Sept | Lake Kurwongbah fishing report |
| Leslie Harrison DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 76.0% | 10,034 | 13,206 | −0.8 pts | 92.5% | 27 Sept | — |
| Cooloolabin DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 92.3% | 7,550 | 8,183 | −0.8 pts | 96.5% | 27 Sept | — |
| Lake MacdonaldSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 39.2% | 3,147 | 8,018 | −0.3 pts | 38.9% | 27 Sept | Lake MacDonald fishing report |
| Bill Gunn Dam (Lake Dyer)South East Queensland (Seqwater) | 65.9% | 4,577 | 6,947 | −2.3 pts | 98.6% | 27 Sept | Bill Gunn Dam fishing report |
| Little Nerang DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 83.5% | 5,600 | 6,705 | −1.9 pts | 88.0% | 27 Sept | — |
| Wappa DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 100.4% above capacity | 4,712 | 4,694 | +0.1 pts | 100.2% | 27 Sept | — |
| Enoggera ReservoirSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 97.9% | 4,174 | 4,262 | −0.4 pts | 97.3% | 27 Sept | Enoggera Reservoir fishing report |
| Gold Creek ReservoirSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 73.6% | 589 | 801 | −1.3 pts | 86.7% | 27 Sept | — |
| Cedar Pocket DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 87.7% | 644 | 735 | −2.1 pts | 96.4% | 27 Sept | — |
| Poona DamSouth East Queensland (Seqwater) | 83.7% | 548 | 655 | +3.1 pts | 80.2% | 27 Sept | — |
No storage of 5 GL or more rose by more than 0.1 points.
90% and over60–90%30–60%under 30%no capacity published
Combined accessible volume of the 24 storages with a published capacity, as a percentage of their combined capacity, one value a day.
The percentage at the top of Seqwater’s dam levels page describes the SEQ Water Grid, not every Seqwater dam. Twelve dams count towards it; alphabetically they are Baroon Pocket, Cooloolabin, Ewen Maddock, Hinze, Lake Macdonald, Leslie Harrison, Little Nerang, North Pine, Sideling Creek, Somerset, Wappa and Wivenhoe. Their full supply volumes add up to 2,202,706 megalitres, and their combined current volume divided by that sum gives the Grid figure. Wivenhoe alone is about 53 per cent of that capacity and Wivenhoe and Somerset together about 70 per cent, so the Grid figure follows the Brisbane River dams. Seqwater’s table also lists Atkinson, Bill Gunn (Lake Dyer), Borumba, Cedar Pocket, Clarendon, Enoggera, Gold Creek, Lake Manchester, Maroon, Moogerah, Nindooinbah, Poona and Wyaralong, none of which is in that total; Seqwater is exploring a new water treatment plant that would connect Wyaralong to the Grid. The same dashboard shows catchment average rainfall and the average daily water use per person.
Seqwater’s drought response is triggered when the SEQ Water Grid falls to 60 per cent, and its Water Security Status Reports, issued every couple of months, set out Grid storage and the drought position. The Grid links dams, treatment plants, reservoirs and pump stations through 600 kilometres of pipelines, so treated water can be moved around the region as demand requires. About 55,000 people live in off-grid communities, rural towns and islands with their own local sources, and each of them has a drought response plan, from Beaudesert and Boonah-Kalbar to Jimna, Kenilworth and Minjerribah. The Water Security Program 2023 is Seqwater’s 30-year plan; its strategies include connecting supplies from the Logan River, among them Wyaralong, a business case for a larger Gold Coast Desalination Plant at Tugun, and keeping the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme as a drought measure.
Seqwater’s pages for the two Brisbane River dams show three volumes side by side. At Wivenhoe, the full supply volume is 1,165,240 megalitres but the operational volume is 1,051,460; at Somerset the pair is 379,849 and 302,749 megalitres. The operational volumes match the reduced full supply levels approved in November 2020, so a Wivenhoe row near 90 per cent, or a Somerset row near 80, describes a dam at its present working top, while both Seqwater and the Bureau still express the percentage against the original full supply volume. Seqwater says the Somerset level will go back to 100 per cent once the Somerset Dam Improvement Project is complete. Early and enabling works are under way, and the July 2026 project update put the Detailed Business Case on track for submission to the Queensland Government later this year; the main upgrade is likely to include raising the wall, extending the dissipator basin, improving the spillway walls and adding concrete to the downstream face, without significantly changing the spillway crest height. Early planning has also started on a Wivenhoe Dam Improvement Project.
Both dams were built for water supply and flood mitigation. Wivenhoe, completed in 1984 upstream of Fernvale, has a 2.3-kilometre wall and a catchment of 7,020 square kilometres. Somerset, on the Stanley River near Kilcoy, was started in 1935, suspended during the Second World War and finished in 1959; it releases into Wivenhoe, which in turn keeps up the supply to the Mt Crosby pumping station downstream. In a flood both are run under the Manual of Operational Procedures for Flood Mitigation at Wivenhoe Dam and Somerset Dam, Revision 18 of November 2024. Below its main table, Seqwater’s page shows how much of each dam’s flood storage is in use and how much remains available, which is the figure to watch in a wet spell. Seqwater also notes that water released from a gated dam can take more than 24 hours to reach urban areas, and that a controlled release does not necessarily flood anything downstream. Release alerts come through its free notification service and its public safety mobile app, while local councils handle flood levels and the Bureau publishes river heights.
Every row on Seqwater’s table carries its own observation time, often from the same afternoon, whereas the Bureau’s record, which this table reads, typically runs a day or two behind, so small differences between the two are expected. Two dams in Seqwater’s table, Nindooinbah and Wyaralong, are not on the Bureau’s storage list, and for the others the Bureau’s capacities agree with Seqwater’s full supply volumes to within a few megalitres. Lake Macdonald needs its own note. For the Lake Macdonald Dam Improvement Project, Seqwater has lowered the lake by about 2 metres, which it puts at about 39 per cent of full supply, and it expects the lake to stay there through roughly five years of construction that began with site works in November 2024, unless dry weather takes it lower. The lower water has closed the fishing platforms at Perch Park and Mary River Cod Park, and launching a trailer boat at Lake Macdonald Park needs a four-wheel drive. After the new spillway is built, the lake returns to the same storage of about 8,000 megalitres, so a low Lake Macdonald reading is planned, not a sign of drought.
Seqwater’s activity search lists fishing sites at 18 of its lakes: Atkinson, Baroon Pocket, Bill Gunn (Lake Dyer), Borumba, Clarendon, Cooloolabin, Enoggera, Ewen Maddock, Hinze, Lake Macdonald, Lake Manchester, Maroon, Moogerah, North Pine, Sideling Creek, Somerset, Wivenhoe and Wyaralong. Fuel-powered boats may launch from the ramps at Somerset, Atkinson, Borumba, Moogerah, Maroon and Lake Dyer. Lake Wivenhoe is now a Marine Zone under the Transport Operations (Marine Safety) Regulation 2016, which makes its long-standing rules enforceable: no personal watercraft, engines limited to electric, four-stroke or direct-injection two-stroke, and a 6-knot limit. Hinze, Baroon Pocket, Wyaralong and Lake Macdonald take electric boats. The Stocked Impoundment Permit Scheme covers 14 Seqwater lakes: Baroon Pocket, Bill Gunn, Borumba, Enoggera, Ewen Maddock, Hinze, Lake Macdonald, Maroon, Moogerah, North Pine, Sideling Creek, Somerset, Wivenhoe and Wyaralong, with Enoggera newly added. Anglers 18 and over fishing with a line in any of them need the permit, and our Queensland licence page explains how to buy it. Much of the land around these lakes is private property, and Seqwater states that going onto it to fish is not permitted.
The Wivenhoe row in the table gives the latest volume, percentage and level reported to the Bureau of Meteorology. The percentage is of the 1,165,240-megalitre full supply volume, but Wivenhoe is currently run to an operational volume of 1,051,460 megalitres, about 90 per cent, so a reading close to 90 means the lake is effectively full.
Brisbane draws on the SEQ Water Grid, and Seqwater calls Wivenhoe the main source of water for Brisbane and greater Ipswich. Check the Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine rows here, or the Grid percentage at the top of Seqwater’s dam levels page for the combined position.
It is the combined current volume of the twelve Grid dams divided by their combined full supply volume of 2,202,706 megalitres. Dams outside the Grid, such as Moogerah, Maroon and Wyaralong, are left out of it even though they appear in Seqwater’s table.
Seqwater triggers its drought response when the SEQ Water Grid reaches 60 per cent. It describes the approach as adaptive, with actions and triggers that can change with demand, climate and the severity of a drought, and its latest Water Security Status Report gives the current position.
Yes. Seqwater lists fishing sites around the lake, among them Branch Creek, Hamon Cove, Logan Inlet, Billies Bay and Hays Landing, and anglers aged 18 or over need a Stocked Impoundment Permit. Boats are limited to electric, four-stroke or direct-injection two-stroke engines at no more than 6 knots, and jet skis are not allowed.
Data: Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online and the Australian Water Storages dataset, © Commonwealth of Australia, CC BY; volumes supplied by © Seqwater. 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.