Little Para Reservoir, lake in Australia

Little Para Reservoir is a rock-filled embankment dam across the Little Para River in the hills behind Salisbury Heights and Greenwith, north-eastern Adelaide. Its wall stands 53 metres high and 225 metres long, and when full the reservoir holds 20.8 gigalitres over 125 hectares. An uncontrolled spillway has a flow capacity of 450 cubic metres per second.

Built between 1974 and 1977 at a cost of A$11.5 million, the Little Para Dam was commissioned in January 1979. Its catchment is too small to fill the reservoir, so it mainly stores water pumped from the River Murray. In June 2008 the wall was raised by 1 metre and a fusegate spillway added.

The reservoir is named after the Little Para River, whose catchment is too small to fill it, so most of its water is pumped from the River Murray. A public park overlooking the water has tennis courts, playgrounds and toilets, and panels describing the dam's original construction.

The site is best accessed on foot or by bike due to limited parking availability. The reserve closes during high fire risk days and on certain holidays, so check conditions beforehand using the SA Water website for water levels and operational updates.

The reservoir's catchment is too small to fill it naturally, so most of its water is pumped from the River Murray; releases back into the Little Para River help recharge groundwater. The 53 m rock-filled dam wall was raised by 1 m and fitted with a fusegate spillway in the 2008–2011 upgrade.