Lake Eildon
| Lake Eildon | |||||||||
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| Coordinates | 37 ° 12 '50 " S , 145 ° 55' 52" O | ||||||||
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| Construction time: | 1915-1955 | ||||||||
| Data on the reservoir | |||||||||
| Water surface | 138.32 km² | ||||||||
| Storage space | 3 334 158 000 m³ | ||||||||
The Lake Eildon is a reservoir in the southern Australian state of Victoria . It was created by damming the Goulburn River at the Eildon Weir . When it reaches its destination, it has a volume of 3.334158 billion m³ and thus contains six times as much water as Sydney Harbor . It is the second largest reservoir in Victoria after the Dartmouth Dam . It is located near the town of Eildon in Lake Eildon National Park .
construction
The lake was dammed in various construction phases. The first dam was built from 1915 to 1929 and dammed what was then known as the Sugarloaf Reservoir . In 1935 the volume of the lake was increased to 337 million m³ and then between 1951 and 1955 almost tenfold. The maximum depth is 79 m. On average, 91% of the water from Lake Eildon is directed to the Goulburn Weir and the Waranga Basin , where it is used to irrigate agricultural land in the Goulburn River valley.
drought
In recent years Lake Eildon has barely filled up, so that the once thriving tourist resorts around the reservoir could no longer attract visitors. This led to massive economic difficulties. Although a lot of water was required for irrigation, the flow was kept relatively constant by careful regulation. On May 8, 2007, the water level fell to its lowest level until then, so that the reservoir only contained 5.3% of its nominal volume.
In June 2007 the Government of Victoria announced that Lake Eildon would be connected to Melbourne's drinking water supply by a pipeline from the Goulburn River .
The holiday scenes of the Australian film The Castle were filmed in the small town of Boonie Doon west of the reservoir .
Recovery 2010/2011
After many years of below average rainfall, in 2010 above average rainfall filled Lake Eildon. In May 2010 it reached 23% of its nominal volume and in March 2011 even 82.5%.
