History

In the late 1950's, it was decided to build an irrigation dam upstream from the Drakesbrook Weir, which is on the outskirts of Waroona. The main source of water supply is the Drakesbrook, formerly known as the Navarino Stream, hence the name Lake Navarino was adopted.

In 1968 the building of the dam was completed and the construction camp was eventually handed to the Shire of Waroona, who turned it into a caravan park. They named it the Waroona Dam Caravan Park. In the mid 1980's, responsibility for the caravan park was handed to the Department of Conservation and Land Management (C A L M).  

CALM have since leased the caravan park to private enterprise and over the past 13 years it has been developed to include more on-site, self-contained accommodation, powered sites, new ablutions, a children's play ground, laundrette, shop/kiosk and licensed restaurant. The name was changed to Lake Navarino Forest Resort in 1992.

In mid 1999, the Water Corporation of Western Australia had the dam wall examined by engineers from the Snowy Mountains and the University of New South Wales to see what was required to bring the dam up to international safety standards. There had been some concern over the structure as the seepage through the wall was rather high. A remedial works plan was announced in 2000. Part of the planned works included replacing the intake valve tower (shown immediately above/right under construction in 1966) with a remote operated, submerged valve, remodelling the spillway, placement of an additional thick layer of clay to the inside of the wall in the area of the abutments. In addition to this it is planned to place more earth on the outside of the wall and to widen the access road across the wall to accommodate two lanes of traffic. The planned works are now scheduled to begin late 2002 and should be completed by early 2004.