After being at a “critical” level earlier this year, Beachport’s Lake George has received a drenching.
Key points:
- Lake George on the Limestone Coast has received 8,000 gigalitres in the past two months, compared with 7,000 gigalitres in 2020
- Local landholders have described the increased water level as “fantastic”
- They’re hoping for more rain in the coming weeks to replenish local lakes, lagoons and wetlands
About 8,000 gigalitres of water have flowed into the lake in regional South Australia since the end of June.
It was a huge boost for the lake, which received 7,000 gigalitres in the whole of 2020.
Lake George Management Committee chair Jim Pegler said it was “fantastic”.
“Six, seven inches of rain [15–18cm] and the lake really has filled up a lot and it’s in great condition,” he said.
Mr Pegler said he was hopeful that more winter rain forecast for the coming weeks would continue to supply the drainage system into the lake.
“The drains are still flowing, but the flow rates are starting to decrease now,” he said.
“That might improve again with a bit more rain this week.”
He said discussions were underway to divert water from another drain into the lake or open the lake out to the sea.
“The [water level] was quite critical at the beginning of the year,” he said.
“If we want to open the lake out to the sea, we really need to probably go up another five points on that [water level measuring] board.
But Mr Pegler said the lake needed to be very full for that to happen.
“So probably unlikely at this stage unless we get a similar rain event to what we’ve had over the past three weeks,” he said.
‘Put the drain system right up’
South East Drainage Board presiding member Brett McLaren said rain last month had been a boost to the system.
“The big amount of rain we’ve had in July is fantastic,” he said.
“It’s certainly put the drain system right up.”
Mr McLaren said the flow rates were now starting to decrease, as the water reached its final destinations at lakes and wetlands.
“For example, the likes of Drain L, which goes to the Robe system, on Thursday was flowing at a rate of 1,375 megalitres a day,” he said.
“That was down to 1,200 megalitres a day yesterday.”
He said Lake George was sitting around 25 per cent capacity, and water was flowing into Bool Lagoon.
“We’ve been able to divert a lot of water through the Blackford system and push it up through the southern lagoon [in the Coorong],” he said.
But Mr McLaren said he would still like to see more rain.
“We don’t really want a dry August, we still want continuing rain,” he said.
“If we get a sudden two-week burst … the drains will probably come back up again.
“It’s going to need a fairly large rain event to make those levels go back up to where they were two weeks ago.”
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