Tooms Lake is a rural locality and a lake in the local government areas (LGA) of
Northern Midlands
Northern Midlands Council is a local government body in Tasmania, extending south of Launceston into the northern region of the Tasmanian central midlands. Northern Midlands is classified as a rural local government area and has a populatio ...
,
Southern Midlands, and
Glamorgan-Spring Bay in the
Central and
South-east LGA regions of
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
. The locality is about north of the town of
Triabunna
Triabunna is a rural residential locality in the local government area (LGA) of Glamorgan–Spring Bay in the South-east LGA region of Tasmania. The locality is about north-east of the city of Hobart. The has a population of 905 for the state ...
. The
2016 census has a population of nil for the state suburb of Tooms Lake.
[
The lake is artificial and shallow, covering .]
The lake was once a wetland and was a Tasmanian aboriginal meeting place. The indigenous name for this place was ''moyantaliah'' (moy.en.tel.eea).
The lake can hold 25.362 gigaliters of water. The catchment area is 60.2 km2. It is drained by the Tooms River, which flows into the Macquarie River
The Macquarie River - Wambuul is part of the Macquarie– Barwon catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is one of the main inland rivers in New South Wales, Australia.
The river rises in the central highlands of New South Wales near the ...
. The lake is reached by the gravel Tooms Lake Road, 83 km from Hobart. Seaplane
A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...
s land on the lake several times per year.
The lake is used for recreational fishing, for brown
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...
and rainbow trout.
Brown trout were introduced in 1904 and rainbow trout were released around 1908. Trout are usually with the largest .[
Kuth Energy is drilling a geothermal energy exploration borehole in the area called Tooms1.
Other creatures found in Tooms Lake are Galaxias maculatus or jollytail.
]
Amenities
Amenities include a camping ground, boat ramp, public toilet and rubbish bin. There are no shops or public phone service.
The lake is 468 m above sea level.
Water flowing from the Tooms Lake has an average electrical conductivity of 74 μS/cm.
History
On 6 December 1828 a massacre of Tasmanian aborigines
The Aboriginal Tasmanians (Palawa kani: ''Palawa'' or ''Pakana'') are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and ...
occurred where ten were killed by nine soldiers from the 40th regiment. John Danvers, the guide of the group, reported to the Oatlands police magistrate:
One of them getting up from a small fire to a large one, discovered us and gave the alarm to the rest, and the whole of them up immediately and attempted to take up their spears in defence, and seeing that, we immediately fired and repeated it because we saw they were on the defensive part, they were about twenty in Number and several of whom were killed, two only were, unfortunately taken alive.
A woman and a boy were captured and the rest of the group escaped.
The dam on the lake was built by 40 men.
Tooms Lake is a confirmed locality.
Geography
The Little Swanport River forms part of the southern boundary. The lake is fully contained within the locality.
References
Resources
Archives Office of Tasmania
{{authority control
Towns in Tasmania
Reservoirs in Tasmania
Massacres of Indigenous Australians
Localities of Northern Midlands Council
Localities of Southern Midlands Council
Localities of Glamorgan–Spring Bay Council