Lake Argyle

Lake Argyle is Western Australia's largest and Australia's second largest man-made freshwater reservoir.

It is located near the East Kimberley town of Kununurra and was constructed as part of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme. The primary source of inflow is the Ord River, with the Bow River and smaller creeks also flowing into the dam.

The construction of the dam was completed in 1971 by Dravo Corporation, with an official opening in the following year. The dam wall is 335 metres long and 98 metres high, making it noteworthy. It is also the most efficient dam in Australia in terms of the ratio of the dam wall size to the amount of water it can store. The lake was named after the Argyle Downs property, which became partially submerged.

Lake Argyle has a usual surface area of around 1,000 square kilometres and a storage capacity of 10,763 gigalitres to the top of the spillway. At maximum flood level, it could hold 35,000 gigalitres of water and cover a surface area of 2,072 square kilometres. The surrounding area has higher areas that have become permanent islands.

Lake Argyle, together with Lake Kununurra, is part of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme, which irrigates 150 square kilometres of farmland in the region. The original plan was to use dam water to irrigate rice crops for export to China, but magpie geese prevented the successful growth of the crop. Nowadays, other crops are grown, but the lake remains Australia's most under-utilised lake.

The damming of the Ord River has caused major changes to the environment, as flows have decreased. Lake Argyle, along with Lake