Commenced in 1917 and completed in 1926, the Chichester Dam is a minor dam on the Chichester River, a tributary of the Williams River. The dam contributes about thirty-five percent of the lower Hunter region’s water supply.

The dam wall is 43m high and is 254m long and was constructed using a cyclopean system of interlocking concrete blocks and large boulders with a volume of 91 m3. The wall is anchored to the bedrock below it by 93 stressed tendons. At 100% capacity, the dam wall holds back 21,500 ML of water at 156.2 mAHD. The spillway is capable of discharging 3,300 m3/s. The surface area of the reservoir is 1.8 km2 and the catchment area, largely located within the Barrington Tops National Park, is 197 km2. The dam is connected to reservoirs in Maitland, Cessnock and Newcastle by an 80 km long gravitation main pipe.

this remote picnic spot, in the most southerly entrance to Barrington Tops National Park, near Dungog, is a great escape from the modern world. Jerusalem Creek picnic area offers a rare opportunity to experience the splendour of a subtropical rainforest, in this World Heritage-listed park.

This protected wilderness provides habitat for a wide range of plants and animals, including more than 50 rare or threatened species, however you’re more likely to see satin bower birds, wompoo fruit-doves, king parrots, glossy black cockatoos, and lyrebirds.

Off Middle Ridge Road you will find an open air museum that contains old logging machinery. The Chichester museum is only small but it is an excellent reminder of how logging equipment and practices have advanced over time within the Forestry Industry.

Forests in this area have been harvested many times for timber, over many decades – some for over 150 years – meaning the forests you see today are regrowth forests. The forests are valuable resources for timber, biodiversity and visitor enjoyment, and so the Forestry Corporation asks all visitors to look after these areas – take only photographs and leave only footprints.