Wyangala Dam was built near Cowra to control the amount of water in the river. The Lachlan does not get its water from melting snow like the Murrumbidgee River or the Murray River. It does not have a regular amount of water flowing down it. In 1944 the flow was less than 1,000 megalitres (810 acre-feet). Six years later (1950) there was a flow of 10,900,000 megalitres (8.8 million acre feet). In dry years, for example April 1944 to April 1945, the Lachlan may have no water flowing in it at all. The Lachlan has flooded every 7 years since 1887 at Forbes.