Lake George, New South Wales
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Lake George is a lake in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia and is about 30 minutes drive north-east of Canberra enroute to Sydney, state capital of New South Wales. The basin of the lake is 25km long and 10km wide. It is renowned for emptying and filling on a cyclic basis, for the treachery of its waters when full (a number of people have drowned), and for a mirage which makes it appear full when it is in fact empty.
Geography
There are no outlets for water that flows in. However, it has been argued from other scientific experiments that the floor of Lake George has cracks that allow water to drain through aquifers into the nearby Yass River that passes to the west of the escarpment on the lake's western edge. Until about 27,000 years ago Lake George flowed into the river but then the escarpment rose, blocking all surface links.
The lake can achieve a depth of around 25m, however, the mean depth is nearer 8m. Between the late 1980s and mid 1990s, the lake had lapped the Federal Highway on its western edge. The lake dried in November 2002. Before that it dried in 1986, but then the lake still had several large pools of water. It was utterly dry, as it is now, in the 1940s.
Activities
Lake George is the site of an experimental scientific wave behaviour platform established by researchers from the Civil Engineering department of the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.
Hang gliders are flown from the escarpment when easterly winds form standing waves. Pilots can then fly along the 25km length of the lake. Unpowered model aircraft are also flown from this area, and powered models are flown from the lake floor.
Wine grapes are grown along the western edge of the lake, on the escarpment. Sheep are grazed on the lake when it is dry or nearly so.
History
The Lake was named for King George III by British settlers; however, in the local indigenous language, its name was Werriwa. It is the site of a notorious massacre of an entire tribe of Aborigines in the nineteenth century. An area immediately to the east of the lake was surveyed in the early 1900s as a possible site for the Capital city of Australia. Instead, the Australian Capital Territory and city of Canberra was established some 30km south-west of the lake.de:Lake George (Australien)