Building a 3/4 Acre Farm Pond in Australia

Building a Farm Dam was no easy task and there was a lot to learn. So we captured the highlights to pass on as much of this experience as we could for anyone else looking to undertake something similar.

Key things to know before building a Dam / Pond (the name varies depending on where you live) is how to identify good clay that will hold water; you'll also need to ensure the dam is located within a catchment area that will receive enough rainwater runoff (or what to do to fix this). A spillway is also required to ensure your dam won't fail when it overflows. We'll talk about all this, plus handy ways we found to be more productive.

Our landscape is very flat and prone to flooding, so this dam design is a little bit unique in the sense that there isn't a need for a dam wall like you may see in other videos. The cool thing about that was that we could use majority of the excavated material to build a flood proof mound.

▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

00:00 - Intro
01:40 - Part 1: Test Dig & How to Determine Soil Types
03:37 - Part 2: Removing the Topsoil
04:31 - Part 3: Breaking Ground
05:57 - Part 4: Different Clay Types
10:22 - Part 5: Digging & More Digging
12:46 - Part 6: Patching Sandy Areas to Prevent Leaks
14:03 - Part 7: Spillway & Drainage Design to Maximise Catchment Area
16:53 - Part 8: Final Touches
17:57 - Part 9: Compacting Dam Surface
18:46 - Part 10: Lessons Learned & Final Thoughts

About Us:
We're Alex & Sarah, a young couple on the North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, who decided to move off grid and leave the city life behind in search of more peace and simplicity. Follow our journey as we share what we learn along the way while building our Fully Off Grid Home & restoring our Overgrown Organic Tea Tree Plantation.

Filmed with our GoPro HERO9 Black Camera & DJI Mini SE Drone