Chaffey Reservoir Dam is popular for water sports, fishing, camping and relaxing. Plenty of families come here in the summer to enjoy the outdoors. It’s a great place to get outdoors and onto the water. I visited with my younger cousins, and we flew the drone above the dam. It’s close by to where my family lives in the countryside.

Chaffey Dam supplies the large town of Tamworth with water, as well as the agricultural area of Northern NSW. At the time of writing this blogpost the dam was at 52% water level – check the current NSWS dam levels here.

Photo of Chaffey Dam taken with a DJI Mavic Pro

Landscape Photography at Chaffey Dam

Even though Chaffey Dam isn’t a natural lake, it has plenty of interesting landscape features to photograph. From the dried out trees that were flooded over, to the shape of the lakebed from above, there’s plenty to photograph. I visited during the middle of the day during a drought, so the colours were very muted. Hopefully the Northern NSW region gets some much needed rainfall soon.

There are some interesting lookouts to see the dam wall and to look over the water on the roads surrounding the dam – watch for ‘lookout’ signs.

Abstract shapes from above
The shadows make interesting subjects here
I used the branches of a tree to frame this photograph. Using elements in the foreground is a great way to give an image depth.

Chaffey Dam Location

You can take photos at a few lookouts around the dam. I recommend visiting from Nundle Road as there is an official entrance here. It costs about 5-10$ for entry fee, I can’t remember exactly.

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