Lake George

Lake George (or Weereewa in the indigenous language) is an endorheic lake in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia.

Lake George (or Weereewa in the indigenous language) is an endorheic lake in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. It is approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) north-east of Canberra located adjacent to the Federal Highway en route to Goulburn and Sydney. Lake George is also the name of a locality on the western and southern edges of the lake, within the area of the Queanbeyan–Palerang Regional Council.

The foreshore of what is now known as Lake George mainly lies within the traditional lands of the Gundungarra, but its south-western foreshore is at the extreme east of the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people. These two peoples spoke a very similar, if not identical, language. The traditional lands of the Ngarigo people probably also extend to the lake's southern shoreline, in the area now known as Bungendore. The lake lies not far from the traditional lands of the Walbanga people (a group of the Yuin from the upper Shoalhaven catchment), to the east.The local indigenous people called the lake Werriwa (originally spelled Weereewa in the journals of the explorers who noted the name), which may mean "bad water"; even when full, the lake is one of the saltiest bodies of water in inland NSW, almost as saline as seawater. However, the name is also similar to regional indigenous word for eagle, which often fly there. The first European to visit the lake was Joseph Wild on 19 August 1820, and it was named for King George III on 28 October 1820 by Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who was touring the area as part of a Royal Commission inquiring into the condition of the Colony. Land grants on the northern shoreline of the lake had been made to colonial settlers as early as 1824.

A large and beautiful billabong—Murray's Lagoon—existed at the northern end of the lake, and in the 1850s it was stocked by the landowner (Terence Aubrey Murray) with Murray cod fished out of the Molonglo River at Yarralumla.At some time the billabong overflowed and introduced Murray cod into the lake itself. They bred rapidly and, from the 1850s to the 1890s; Lake George abounded with them.The long Federation Drought commenced in the mid-1890s, and by 1902 the lake had dried out completely. In their search for water to survive in, the Murray cod flocked into the mouths of the few small creeks feeding the lake and died there by the thousands.In 1886, a site was reserved for a village to be known as Murray, on the northern shoreline of the lake, just west of the landform known as Kenny's Point. Although the village was surveyed and allotments put up for sale in 1887 and 1910, the village seems not to have developed. Its design was cancelled in 1919. It was located just beyond the end of modern-day Lake George Road. To this day there is no town or village on the lake's shoreline.

In the early 1900s, an area immediately to the south-east of the lake and north-north-east of Bungendore, was surveyed as a possible site for the capital city of Australia. The city would have extended from close to the Lake George shoreline to the Bombala railway line. Although it had the advantage of an existing railway connection, the site presented difficulties, particularly in supplying it with sufficient fresh water and the variability of the water level in Lake George. Instead, the Australian Capital Territory and city of Canberra were established some 30 km (19 mi) south-west of the lake.

One of the original 75 electoral divisions of the Australian House of Representatives in 1901 was named "Werriwa", the original Aboriginal name of the lake. By 1913, it no longer included the lake, and the electorate is currently centred in the south-western suburbs of Sydney.

During World War II, a wooden 'dummy' ship was floated on the lake and used for bombing practice by the Royal Australian Air Force.It is possible that there is still unexploded ordnance settled into the lake bed.On 8 July 1956 five cadets from the Royal Military College, Duntroon died due to hypothermia in a yachting accident.

Due to the drought in New South Wales, Lake George dried out completely in November 2002, and remained so until February 2010 when it started to refill. The previous time the lake had dried out completely was during a severe drought in the 1940s, although it was partially dry in 1986, leaving large pools of water. When the lake is empty it is used by farmers to graze sheep and cattle. During September 2016, the lake filled for the first time since 1996. In the intervening years the level of water in the lake had never been as high as that in September 2016.

Rain during August 2020 helped to partly fill the lake again after several more years of drought.

The unusual fluctuations in the water level have given rise to fanciful urban myths that the lake is somehow connected to lakes in Peru or South Africa, although NSW government ecologist Justin Nancarrow theorises that the lake may indeed be connected to the nearby Yass River by subterranean aquifers which pass under the surrounding escarpment, and that this connection may explain the salinity of the river.