Lake Bennett is a small artificial freshwater

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

located 80 km south of

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( Larrakia: ') is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. The city has nearly 53% of the Northern Territory's population, with 139,902 at the 2021 census. It is the smallest, wettest, and most northerly of the Australi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

within the

Coomalie Shire The Coomalie Community Government Council is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Australia's Northern Territory, situated south of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The counc ...

. The lake is set in 4.45 square kilometres of tropical wilderness. It was created in 1980 following the construction of a dam by George and Ken Bennett on a property they had purchased the previous year. It has been stocked with

barramundi The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer''), Asian sea bass, or giant sea perch (also known as dangri, apahap or siakap) is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Carangiformes. The species is widely distributed in the I ...

since 2004. In recent times some sub-division of the lands around the lake foreshores has occurred with cabins and houses being built around the northern edge, although the permanent population is very small. These dwellings are largely used as "weekenders" or retreats.

Resort

Lake Bennett Wilderness resort was developed in the 1990s. The resort offers a variety of accommodation options as well as canoe hire, restaurant and bar. The resort was awarded a Northern Territory Tourism Brolga Award in 2002 in the category "unique accommodation". In 2011, a development application was approved for a large expansion of the resort, including both tourist and residential accommodation, however these plans did not eventuate. After closing in 2018, the resort was sold to new owners, renovated and rebranded. It reopened in 2021 as the De Lago Resort at Lake Bennett.

References

External links

De Lago Resort
Bennett {{NorthernTerritory-geo-stub