Lake George

ANU professor and geologist, Brad Pillans, is a Lake George expert and has been studying the lake’s history going back millions of years.

Transcript

00:00 [WIND BLOWING]

00:03 So since I was a boy and I first saw the lake in 1963,

00:13 in fact, it looked much like it is at the moment in terms

00:16 of the level of water in the lake.

00:19 But in those days, there were boats.

00:22 There were sailing boats.

00:23 There were power boats.

00:24 And there were fishing boats, small.

00:27 So it was a place that many people in Canberra

00:31 came, particularly at weekends during summer,

00:33 for family picnics and to enjoy the water.

00:38 And in between 1963, when I first

00:40 saw the lake, and the present, the lake

00:43 has come and gone spectacularly.

00:45 And there have been some periods,

00:47 like in the early 2000s, when the lake was completely dry

00:51 or nearly dry.

00:52 And there were periods like now, like in 1990 and 1976,

00:59 when the lake level was pretty much the same level it is now,

01:02 but only for a short period.

01:05 So wild theories about why the water level

01:09 changed so dramatically.

01:11 And there were ideas that there were subterranean tunnels that

01:15 would take the water to a lake in New Zealand,

01:18 or South America, or China, or anywhere.

01:23 And of course, those sorts of theories

01:26 are really the myths and legends, if you like.

01:31 And they have no scientific basis.

01:33 The reality is that the amount of water

01:36 in the lake, which has no natural outlet, I might add.

01:39 It's a closed basin.

01:40 So the water that falls from rain on the lake floor

01:45 and runs into the lake from the creeks that

01:49 drain into the lake, that supplies the water to the lake.

01:55 And it's balanced by evaporation.

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