Critics call it the “Orkopoulos Dam”, after former Hunter state Labor MP and convicted pedophile Milton Orkopoulos, whose arrest embarrassed the NSW Government.

He doesn’t care how much money he is offered. “I am devastated,” he said. “I have told them they will never have enough money to buy this place. It is irreplaceable. There is a lot of history here. It was a happy place; not any more.”

“The term `think of all the money’ makes my blood boil,” she said. “We want our land, our home, our roots, our memories. To be told all you have worked for in the past and all you have laid out for the future is to be taken from you without justification is truly demoralising.”

THERE will be water as far as the eye can see. If the NSW Government has its way, the picturesque hills in the Upper Hunter will soon be islands in a reservoir the size of Sydney Harbour, while dairy farms dating back to the 1800s will be deep under water.

The $400 million Tillegra Dam, with its 80m-high walls, has been controversial since it was announced by NSW Premier Morris Iemma in 2006.

Environmentalists, including the No Tillegra Dam Group and Save the Williams River Coalition, have queued to condemn the project.

Dozens of families, threatened with compulsory acquisition, have sold up. Only 10 remain.

Protesters claim families have been bullied into selling and the dam is unnecessary, environmentally damaging and has been brought in only to distract attention from Mr Iemma’s political problems.

Critics call it the “Orkopoulos Dam”, after former Hunter state Labor MP and convicted pedophile Milton Orkopoulos, whose arrest embarrassed the NSW Government.

The Moores, whose ancestors are all buried in the local Quartpot cemetery, are one of the last families left.

Jim Moore, 69, who has been a dairy farmer on the family property, Brownmore, all his life, is anguished over whether to leave his parents’ and grandparents’ remains in the cemetery.

He doesn’t care how much money he is offered. “I am devastated,” he said. “I have told them they will never have enough money to buy this place. It is irreplaceable. There is a lot of history here. It was a happy place; not any more.”

Mr Moore’s daughter, Carol Pasenow, said many failed to understand the locals’ bond to the land.

“The term `think of all the money’ makes my blood boil,” she said. “We want our land, our home, our roots, our memories. To be told all you have worked for in the past and all you have laid out for the future is to be taken from you without justification is truly demoralising.”

No Tillegra Dam group chairwoman Sally Corbett said the dam had already had severe social and economic impacts.

Geologist and engineer Graham Holt, who lives locally, said the Tillegra Dam site was riddled with active fault lines. “Dams are out of fashion for a very good reason: they do not encourage the wise use of water, they are environmentally and socially destructive, and they are expensive,” he said.

A spokesman for the Total Environment Centre, Leigh Martin, said there was no justification for building the dam. He said colonies of platypus, native fish species and a scarce fresh water mussel would all be lost.

“The NSW Government has used ministerial directives to block the public examination of the necessity of the dam,” he said.

Project Manager Nicole Holmes said the dam would drought-proof the Lower Hunter. An environmental assessment is due within two months.

A spokeswoman for NSW Water Minister Nathan Rees said the dam was part of an election commitment.

Credit: John Stapleton