WaterNSW has repaired key flood-damaged infrastructure at an important water storage and wetland, a critical pelican breeding area, in the Lachlan Valley.

The emergency work at Lake Brewster received urgent priority due to the lake’s importance as both a major water storage on the lower Lachlan River, and a significant environmental site.

Specialist WaterNSW personnel and heavy equipment from across the region were enlisted to restore function to critical inlet infrastructure extensively damaged during major flooding in late 2022.

WaterNSW crews working extended shifts successfully completed the most urgent repairs, including more than one kilometre of inlet channel, used to control water flow into the lake.

The authority says that the work to date has allowed water to be received into the lake, assisting with water quality, supporting a major pelican breeding event currently taking place, and helping replenish losses due to evaporation.

WaterNSW dam safety experts have assessed the wider damage and confirmed that the lake can be safely filled to 79.5 per cent of capacity until repairs to the rest of the embankments are complete.

The preliminary works at Lake Brewster are the first in an extensive rehabilitation process.

WaterNSW says initial investigations indicate that much of the embankment network at Lake Brewster has incurred some degree of damage, and aerial inspections continue in consultation with our dam safety experts to better understand the scale of the repair project.

The authority says that emergency work was not only urgently needed, it also occurred in a comparatively remote location and required resources and materials to reach a site that was itself still recovering from extensive flooding, and for which access has been restricted by flood-damaged road networks.