Lake Euramoo (a.k.a. Ngimun & Nuta) is a shallow dumbbell-shaped volcanic

crater lake Crater Lake ( Klamath: ''Giiwas'') is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fill ...

(a maar) in Danbulla,

Tablelands Region The Tablelands Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia inland from the city of Cairns. Established in 2008, it was preceded by four previous local government areas which dated back more than a century. On 1 January ...

, Far North Queensland, Australia. It was formed about 23,000 years ago by two massive explosions from groundwater superheating. The crater lake is known to Yidinji, within their oral history and

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

as ''Ngimun'', and known to neighbouring Ngdjon-jii as ''Nuta''; though formally gazetted by the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended f ...

as 'Lake Euramoo', Euramo being the Dyirbal word for river (''yuramu'') The lake (''Ngimun'') falls within the current Danbulla National Park and State Forest,Queensland National Parks & Wildlife Service
Accessed 6 November 2007. on the

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

uplifted highlands of the Atherton Tableland, within the

Wet Tropics of Queensland The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site consists of approximately 8,940 km2 of Australian wet tropical forests growing along the north-east Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range. The Wet Tropics of Queensland meets all f ...

World Heritage Area, Australia.

Origins

Yidinji and Ngadjon-jii mythology explaining the origin of ''Ngimun'' plus two other companion crater lakes, ''Yidyam'' ( Lake Eacham) and ''Barany'' ( Lake Barrine), has been described as a plausible and surprisingly accurate oral account of volcanic eruptions or explosions in the area around 10,000 years ago.

''It is said that two newly-initiated men broke a taboo and angered the rainbow serpent Yamany, major spirit of the area ... As a result 'the camping-place began to change, the earth under the camp roaring like thunder. The wind started to blow down, as if a cyclone were coming. The camping-place began to twist and crack. While this was happening there was in the sky a red cloud, of a hue never seen before. The people tried to run from side to side but were swallowed by a crack which opened in the ground'....''
''.. After telling the myth, in 1964, the storyteller remarked that when this happened the country round the lakes was 'not jungle - just open scrub'. In 1968, a dated pollen diagram from the organic sediments of Lake Euramoo gimunby Peter Kershaw (1970) showed, rather surprisingly, that the rain forest in that area is only about 7,600 years old.''

Vegetation

The vegetation surrounding Lake Euramoo (Ngimun) is a remnant of moist sub

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

rainforest, surrounded by previously cleared land that, within the last 50 years, has been planted with

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

Hoop Pine (

Araucaria cunninghamii ''Araucaria cunninghamii'' is a species of ''Araucaria'' known as hoop pine. Other less commonly used names include colonial pine, Queensland pine, Dorrigo pine, Moreton Bay pine and Richmond River pine. The scientific name honours the botanist a ...

) and exotic conifers, or recolonised by the remnant rainforest species.HABERLE, Simon G; TIBBY, John; DIMITRIADIS, Sophie; & HEIJNIS, Henk (2006) ''The impact of European occupation on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem dynamics in an Australian tropical rain forest''. Journal of Ecology. Volume 96. Pages 987- 1002. Typical moist submontane rainforest species found near Lake Euramoo (Ngimun), within 100 m, include: *

Araliaceae The Araliaceae are a family of flowering plants composed of about 43 genera and around 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely, but it is predominantly distinguish ...

(e.g. ''Polyscias australiana'', ''Schefflera actinophylla'') *

Araucariaceae Araucariaceae – also known as araucarians – is an extremely ancient family of coniferous trees. The family achieved its maximum diversity during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and the early Cenozoic, when it was distributed almost worldw ...

(e.g. ''Agathis robusta'') *

Moraceae The Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — are a family of flowering plants comprising about 38 genera and over 1100 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates; however ...

(e.g. ''Ficus sp''.), *

Elaeocarpaceae Elaeaocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants. The family contains approximately 615 species of trees and shrubs in 12 genera."Elaeocarpaceae" In: Klaus Kubitzki (ed.). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' vol. VI. Springer-Verlag: Be ...

(e.g. ''Elaeocarpus grandis'') *

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as '' Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, ...

(e.g. ''Aleurites moluccana'', ''Macaranga spp.'') * Myrtaceae (e.g. ''Austromyrtus spp.'', ''Eugenia cormiflora'') and *

Rubiaceae The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules a ...

(e.g. ''Flindersia brayleyana'',''Euodia bonwickii'' ) Around the margin of Ngimun are identifiable 'zones' of aquatic plants which fluctuate with water depth and the seasons: * at Lake Euramoo (Ngimun)'s edge, rainforest lianas (e.g. ''Parsonsia'' spp.) intertwine with tall swamp grasses (''Phragmites australis''); * away from the canopy's shade and the liana growth, up to 1 m water depth, the ''

Hibiscus ''Hibiscus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. The genus is quite large, comprising several hundred species that are native to warm temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species ...

'' spp. and '' Ludwigia'' spp. become more common. * further out there are rooted aquatic plants, floating vegetation mats, and, finally, up to 30 m from the edge are the floating aquatic plants (mainly ''

Nymphoides ''Nymphoides'', or floatingheart, is a genus of aquatic flowering plants in the family Menyanthaceae. The genus name refers to their resemblance to the water lily ''Nymphaea''. ''Nymphoides'' are aquatic plants with submerged roots and floating l ...

'' spp.)

Notes and references

Notes

References

* *

External links

Ngadjonji - Earthwatch web page.
Accessed 5 November 2007
Queensland National Parks & Wildlife Service
Accessed 6 November 2007.
Recording of Striped Marsh frogs at the lake at Freesound
{{DEFAULTSORT:Euramoo, Lake Australian Aboriginal mythology Volcanic crater lakes Cultural landscapes of North-East Queensland Lakes of Queensland Landforms of Far North Queensland Maars of Australia Volcanoes of Queensland