Building of the Wungong Dam was preceded in 1925 by the construction of a small pipehead dam on the brook, part of the 'Hills Scheme' which was intended to supplement the growing water needs of the Perth metropolitan area by means of constructing three reservoirs and three pipehead dams. The Wungong Brook Pipehead Dam supplied up to 32,000 kilolitres a day, more than either the Churchman Brook Dam or Victoria Reservoir. Soon after the pipehead dam was built, plans were prepared for a larger dam on the site but were put aside when in the 1930s it was decided to build the Canning Dam. Wungong Dam has a capacity of 60 million kilolitres and, when full, its storage area covers 30 hectares stretching 5.8 kilometres back from the dam wall. Water from the dam is supplied by means of a steel pipe laid through the Wungong Gorge, although provision for an alternative supply route was made during the 1980s by creation of the Wungong Tunnel which runs underground from just west of Wungong Dam through to Rails Crescent on the western slope of the Darling Scarp.