Yesterday I took a quick drive out to Mantom Dam. After our recent monsoonal weather, the dam is now full and the dam wall has become a powerful waterfall!
Manton Dam actually has two areas you can access, which I didn’t realise until yesterday. A lot of locals don’t know about this entrance either, so I thought it would be nice to share my photos from this lesser known part of Manton Dam.
Manton Dam is located around 70km south of Darwin, on the Stuart Highway. When driving out of Darwin you will see a sign that says “Manton Dam turn off in 5km”. Around 100m after this sign, you can actually exit the highway to the right and follow a small sign that directs to the dam wall.
Most visitors to Manton Dam follow the larger sign, and do indeed take the turn off in 5km! Don’t get me wrong, this is a great spot too. There is a boat ramp there, and the dam water itself is a very popular spot with locals boating, skiing, jet-skiing, swimming, picnicking… etc. However, it’s just like a large lake and there is little structurally to take photos of.
So, I headed to the lesser-known dam wall.
On parking the car and entering through the gates you are greeted with a sign:
Watch out for crocs!
The path to the dam wall on this visit was basically walking 6 ft away from the water’s edge. Any slight movement from the water and I was ready to scramble up the cliff to the other side of the path!
Manton Dam is no longer used for Darwin’s main water supply – that’s now down to the construction of Darwin River Dam. Manton Dam is still used as our backup water supply, but hasn’t been used as the main source since the 70’s.
There are still old buildings and work equipment here from when the dam was used.
The path turns in to a boardwalk style platform which takes you out to the base of the dam wall.
I don’t think Manton Dam is big on a world-wide dam scale, but it really felt huge standing at the bottom of it! There was a lot of water flowing over in to the river – would be interesting to see the wall in the middle of the dry season and how little water there would be in comparison.
There was that much water coming down over the wall, the spray was soaking my camera so I couldn’t get any shots from the bottom.
I managed to find the path up to the top off the dam wall, which was a much more interesting view point anyway! Worth the look, if it’s open. This walk closes when there is too much water there.
There were a few people fishing off the walkway, this river system is very healthy and filled with life…. Not sure they caught anything yesterday though!
If you can get the time, Manton Dam is only around an hour drive from Darwin – it’s worth a look if you are driving past. Especially at this time of year – it’s lovely and cool at the bottom of the waterfall!