1970
12 January 1970
Wheel in dam not part of Cessna
A fisherman at Burrendong Dam on Friday hooked a large wheel at first thought to be part of the Cessna aircraft which crashed into the dam last year.
The fisherman, Mr. Fred Ewings, of Orange, said he and a companion were fishing in the Cudgegong River, about 16 miles from the dam wall, when they hooked a large round object.
On inspection, they found it was a wheel, similar to an aeroplane wheel.
It was floating in the water when it was hooked.
Mr. Ewings said he was a regular fisherman at the dam.
He took the wheel to Wellington Police Station, where Police called in a local pilot, Mr. Ron Cosier.
Mr. Cosier said he doubted the wheel was from a Cessna.
He said it had probably come from a much earlier model aeroplane than the one which sank at the dam, or it could have come from a piece of farm machinery.
The wheel was then taken to Dubbo where Engineers of Davey Air Services inspected it and also gave the opinion that it was not from a Cessna.
They said it was from a ‘plane, the ‘plane would have been an early model.
The Cessna from which Mr. Ewings thought the wheel may have come crashed into Burrendong Dam last July.
A man and three women died in the crash but the wreckage of the plane was never found1
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14 January 1970
Level of dam falling slowly
Heavy storms at the weekend had no effect on the level of Burrendong Dam.
A Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission official said the level of the dam had continued to drop during the weekend and was still dropping slightly.
Since last Thursday it had dropped from 18 feet 10 inches above the spillway to 18 feet six inches.
The official said about one inch of rain had fallen at the dam in three storms over the weekend.
He said the outflow of the dam was considerably more than the inflow at present.
He said 650 cubic feet a second was being discharged from the dam through the valves at the base of the dam wall.
The spillway gates were closed.
The dam reached a record level last November when the Macquarie and Cudgegong Rivers, which feed the dam, flooded.
The water level at the dam rose to 21 feet 9 inches above the spillway.
The W.C. and I.C. official said the discharge of 650 cusecs would be maintained until the Commission’s head office ordered a change.
The discharge was designed to meet the requirements downstream.
During the winter months the normal discharge from the dam is only 20 cusecs2
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