Lake Albert is an artificial

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in the suburb of Lake Albert in

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 56,000 as of June 2018, Wagga Wagga is the state's la ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Covering 125 ha, the lake was built in 1868 on what was known as ''Swampy Plains'' and was named after Prince Albert. Surrounded by parkland, the lake is a venue for water sports, fishing, walking and bird watching. The lake is home to the Boat Club and one of the city's two golf courses, Wagga Wagga Country Club, is situated on the western shore of the lake.

History

Events

Dead and dying Cyprinus carpio carpio in Lake Albert

On 8–9 May 1976, the Water Ski Challenge Shield was held on the lake for the first time which was formed by Zone 5 of the New South Wales Ski Association and the Wagga Boat Club. On 9 May 1976, Australian Ski and Victorian trial champion, Barry Carne from the Melbourne suburb of Lower Templestowe, died when he collapsed and cart wheeled up to twelve times during the sixth lap of the final heat of the ski challenge. The Barry Carne Memorial Ski Race was held on the second Saturday and Sunday in May of each year, subject to water levels in the lake. On 13 and 14 May 2006 the event returned to Lake Albert after a 4-year absence due to the lake being at record low levels owing to drought but was cancelled in 2007 due to low water levels. On 12 May 2009, due to the low water levels in the lake the Barry Carne High and Dry event was held. In March 2010 it was announced that Barry Carne Memorial Ski Race would return to the lake on 3rd Saturday and Sunday in May, after record breaking rain had filled that lake.

Water levels

Due to years of drought the water level at Lake Albert reached record lows and in 2005 Wagga Wagga City Council considered pumping water into the lake to prevent further fish deaths which was ruled out by a senior council official. After a thunderstorm dumped around in the area the lake reached its full depth in early November 2005. In January 2007, a ban on water sport activities on Lake Albert was likely if the lake's water level drops below due to the ongoing

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

. On 20 March 2008, the lake was closed for the second time since January 2008 due to high levels of Faecal Coliforms in the water. In January 2010, the lake's water levels were at record lows with a large amount of fish, mostly

European carp The Eurasian carp or European carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), widely known as the common carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Arkive The ...

, dying due to the low water levels,

blue-green algae Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, bl ...

and hot weather. With the low water levels and dying fish, residents around the lake fear that a mosquitoes outbreak is possible which could see an outbreak of the

Ross River fever Ross River fever is a mosquito-borne infectious disease caused by infection with the Ross River virus. The illness is typically characterised by flu like symptoms combined with polyarthritis and a rash. The virus is endemic to mainland Austra ...

. The lake was expected to be almost dried up by the end of March, however heavy rain fell over the area in mid February which had slightly raised the lake's water level after falling to . Record breaking rains in the catchment on 7 March had raised the lakes level to , the deepest level since 2006.

Silt removal

On 23 March 2009, local businesses volunteered time and equipment with the Wagga Wagga City Council paying $30,000 in fuel costs, began to remove silt on the northern end of the lake with of silt to be removed and used at the Wagga Wagga Exhibition Centre (Equex) for spectator mounds. File:4112005lake.jpg, Lake Albert on 4 November 2005 File:9112005lake.jpg, Lake Albert 100% full on 9 November 2005 File:Lake Albert Panorama.jpg,

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

view of the lake taken on 31 March 2008 File:Desilting of the northern end of Lake Albert 3.jpg, A pull scraper with a laser leveler, removing silt from the northern end

References

External links

Lake Albert

{{Wagga Wagga City

Albert Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Alber ...

Wagga Wagga