The construction of the dam necessitated the dedication of the knowledge and experience of a number of the engineers employed in the branches at the time including Cecil W. Darley (NSW inspecting engineer in London), Leslie A.B. Wade (principal engineer - Water Supply and Sewerage Branch), Henry H. Dare and Ernest de Burgh (supervising engineers). The successful completion of the dam and its continuation of use as a water supply dam are lasting testament to the professional capabilities of the late Victorian/Edwardian era generation of engineers in the Public Works Department. The association of Thomas W. Keele with the initial dam proposal, and the subsequent problems associated with the cost and the ongoing Royal Commissions into the project was immortalised through Banjo Patterson's poem "The Dam that Keele Built". The Manor was purpose built in 1910 as the quasi-private domain of the Board members of the Water Board. The building and its grounds have particular associations with past identities of the Board. The island and the inlets of Lake Cataract are associated with past identities of the Water Board through memorialisation of their surnames. A well known example is Keele Island named after Thomas William Keele, the president of the former Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage at the time of the dam's construction. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. The wall of Cataract Dam is an engineering work imbued with a sense of high aesthetic values expressed through a well proportioned high and straight wall set within the gorge of the Cataract River. The design and finishes of the crest house, albeit substantially reconstructed c.1953, parapet and abutments were undertaken by the Government's Architect Branch of the Department of Public Works, at the time under Walter Liberty Vernon. It exhibits stylistic traits which evoke the era of its construction and impart a park-like appearance to the dam. The Manor, completed in 1910, is dramatically set within the platform of the cableway and quarry used in the construction of the dam. The sense of elevation and axial relationship to the wall is accentuated by the adjoining drive which is flanked by an avenueof Phoenix palms and Jacranda and the flight of concrete and stone steps which provide the principal means of access to the wall. There is a high level of design awareness in