Fogg Dam History

wildlife & wild dreams

History of Fogg Dam

Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve

To appreciate Fogg dam conservation reserve, first, we have to understand its history and how it came about. The story has everything that you could want in a pioneering tale.  From good intentions to disastrous outcomes and then a silver lining to the dark clouds.

It is all here.

Fogg Dam History

Fogg Dam history starts just after WWII.

The bombing of Darwin during WWII highlighted the strategic value of the Top End and Australia’s vulnerability through this gateway.

To counter this the Federal Government was inspired to promote industrial development of the region as a way of increasing the population.  They did this by attracting mainly US investors to fund the development of what was going to be the biggest rice-producing venture in the Southern Hemisphere.

Australian-American Humpty Doo Rice Project

In 1956 the Australian-American Humpty Doo Rice Project under Territory Rice Ltd was born with mainly US investors. The dam was to be named after Mr JD Fogg, the managing director for Utah Australia ltd and a mere $100,000 later, Fogg Dam got built.

Building the dam only took a few weeks due to the simple construction methods employed to do the job. In a nutshell, they piled up the dirt from the floodplain into a big straight line and called it a dam. The plan for the Fogg Dam system was to store water from the Adelaide River during the wet season and then function as a reservoir during the dry season so that the rice paddy fields were nourished all year round.

Sadly, what followed over the next 8 years was a litany of issues and just poor planning, bad luck and some naivety, bordering on stupidity.  Poor management decisions were being made in America, ignoring the knowledge and advice of nearby Beatrice hill farm research conducted by NT Department of Plant Industry. The Fogg Dam enterprise failed and ultimately left the investors out of pocket, to the demise of Australia’s first Merchant Bank.

Rice enterprise failing, management blamed Northern Territory local wildlife such as buffalo, native dusky rats and birds for eating their crops but the dam failed to do its main function.

On a bright note, Fogg Dam became a mecca for all things wild.  In particular birdlife, reptiles, mammals and many more animal friends.

Fogg Dam was declared a Bird Protection District in 1959 and later a Conservation Reserve in 1982.

Biologically, the construction of the dam added an open water environment to the already diverse assemblage of ecosystem in the region.

These include: the Adelaide river floodplain, woodland, grassland and monsoonal fringing forest to create a micro-region of diversity. Sure keep the most ardent enthusiast happy, now that is a silver lining.

Check out the full story here.

Today Fogg Dam offers plenty of things to do for the nature enthusiast, families and those visiting the NT.  At only 45 minutes from Darwin it is the perfect introduction to the wildlife and environments of the Top End.

 

View from monsoon forest to final lookout, Lily Walk, Fogg Dam.
Double story lookout platformat the western side of Fogg Dam.
Burned floodplain of Fogg Dam