Lake Cowal is the largest inland

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 ...

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 country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. The lake is

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, f ...

, being fed by the small Bland Creek and by the occasional flooding of the

Lachlan River The Lachlan River is an intermittent river that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, located in the Southern Tablelands, Central West, and Riverina regions of New South Wales, Australia. The Lachlan Riv ...

. Despite this, it retains a considerable amount of water in about 70% of years. Cowal Lake in John Sands 1886 map

Biodiversity

Lake Cowal is situated 47 km North East of

West Wyalong West Wyalong is the main town of the Bland Shire in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Located west of Sydney and above sea level, it is situated on the crossroads of the Newell Highway between Melbourne and Brisbane, and th ...

and is home to a variety of

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

. Some of these species include: * Australian pillwort *

Australasian bittern The Australasian bittern (''Botaurus poiciloptilus''), also known as the brown bittern or matuku hūrepo, and also nicknamed the "bunyip bird", is a large bird in the heron family Ardeidae. A secretive bird with a distinctive booming call, it is ...

* Black-necked stork *

Blue-billed duck The blue-billed duck (''Oxyura australis'') is a small Australian stiff-tailed duck, with both the male and female growing to a length of 40 cm (16 in). The male has a slate-blue bill which changes to bright-blue during the breeding se ...

* Freshwater catfish (protected) * Macquarie perch (protected)

Recognition

The lake is listed on the now-defunct

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Herita ...

in 1992 and was added to the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia in 1998. It is listed as a Landscape Conservation Area by the

National Trust of Australia The National Trust of Australia, officially the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT), is the Australian national peak body for community-based, non-government non-profit organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's In ...

Mineral resources and mining

The area surrounding the lake is rich in minerals - especially gold - and is currently being mined by Evolution Mining.

Barrick Gold Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democra ...

sold the Cowal Mine to Evolution Mining in 2015 for US$550m. There is concern among environmental groups and the local

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...

Aboriginal people that the cyanide used in the mining process prior to 2007 could lead to the contamination of the lake. The area was explored for gold in the 1980s and 1990s by North Limited, a subsidiary of

Rio Tinto Group Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). The company was founded in 1873 when of a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tint ...

. The mine has been producing gold since 2006, and produced 238,000 ounces of gold in 2016. The resource is estimated to still contain approximately of gold.

Lake Cowal Campaign and Barrick Gold

The Cowal Gold Mine Project encompasses approximately 29 square kilometres as of 2023. One hundred and eight million tonnes of low to medium grade ore would be excavated from an open cut pit 1 km wide and 325 metres deep on the lake shore and partly within the high water level of Lake Cowal to produce an estimated 2.7 million ounces of gold.The location of the mine Cowal and gold production until December 2009.

, Global Operations, Australia Pacific, Cowal. Acceded 18 September 2010. There was conflict in 2004 between protesters and mining workers over the mining activity taking place on

land. Despite the benefits economically to the town of

with increased employment.

was granted a ''Section 90'' by National Parks and Wildlife. Lake Cowal is known as the heartland of the

nation and is rich in artifacts.

elder Neville "Chappy" Williams led a campaign to save Lake Cowal and the

heartland. The Lake Cowal Campaign aims to prevent further gold mining by Evolution Mining in the environmentally-fragile area around Lake Cowal and to stop land degradation and possible toxicity problems from the mine and its tailing dams. The

people are being joined in their campaign by various Australian

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

groups who formed the ''Coalition to Protect Lake Cowal'' initiated by th
Rainforest Information Centre
and

Friends of the Earth Australia Friends of the Earth (FoE) Australia is a federation of independent local groups working for a socially equitable and environmentally sustainable future. It believes that pursuing environmental protection is inseparable from broader social conc ...

. The only barrier between the lake and the open pit would be an earth wall or bund.

Tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction ( gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that ove ...

would be stored in dams 3.5 km from the lake. Water would be supplied from a bore in the Bland Creek Paleochannel borefield, 20 km east of the mine site and will use up to 17 megalitres per day.

"Don't desecrate our dreaming site, don't mine our sacred site. I have fought Barrick in the courts for over 2 years, now it's time for us all to work together to stop this disaster waiting to happen." - 'Uncle Chappy', May 2004.

References

External links

*
Lake Cowal Campaign websiteLake Cowal Railway Siding
{{Lakes of New South Wales , state=autocollapse

Cowal Cowal ( gd, Còmhghall) is a peninsula in Argyll and Bute, in the west of Scotland, that extends into the Firth of Clyde. The northern part of the peninsula is covered by the Argyll Forest Park managed by Forestry and Land Scotland. The Arroch ...

Central West (New South Wales) Murray-Darling basin Bland Shire c c