Silvan Reservoir
Silvan Reservoir is in Melbourne's east and is the heart of the water transfer system. Water from Silvan is transferred to most parts of Melbourne's metropolitan area. Silvan also stores water from Upper Yarra system for transfer to Cardinia.
Silvan Reservoir, which has a capacity of 40,000 megalitres (million litres), was completed in 1932, as part of a large scale dam construction program that included Maroondah Reservoir and O'Shannassy Reservoir.
To improve transfer capacity between Upper Yarra and Silvan reservoirs, and to enable water harvested from the Thomson River to be transferred to Cardinia Reservoir, the 2.1 metre diameter Yarra Valley Conduit and Silvan-Cardinia main were built in 1975.
Area of catchment
900 hectares (off-stream storage)
Type of dam
Earthfill embankment with reinforced concrete core wall
Maximum height of main dam from river to crest
40 metres
Length measured along top of dam
650 metres
Surface area (top water level)
333 hectares