Lake Cargelligo () is a town in the Central West region of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia, on Lake Cargelligo. It is in

Lachlan Shire Lachlan Shire is a local government area in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is located adjacent to the Lachlan River, the Lachlan Valley Way and the Broken Hill railway line. The largest town and council sea ...

. Its name is said to be a corruption of the Aboriginal word ''kartjellakoo'' meaning 'he had a coolamon'. Alternatively it is derived from Wiradjuri and Ngiyambaa "gajal" for water container with suffix "lugu" for "her" or "his". At the , Lake Cargelligo had a population of 1,430. It had an Indigenous population of 257 (18%) and other Australian-born population of 1,153 (together 80.6% of the population).

History

The area now known as Lake Cargelligo lies within the traditional lands of the

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 ...

people. The explorers,

John Oxley John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828) was an English List of explorers, explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps bes ...

and

George Evans George Evans may refer to: Arts and entertainment * George "Honey Boy" Evans (1870–1915), American songwriter and entertainer * George Evans (bandleader) (1915–1993), English jazz bandleader, arranger and tenor saxophonist * George Evans (sin ...

, followed the

Lachlan River The Lachlan River (Wiradjuri: ''Kalari'', ''Galiyarr'') 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 Sou ...

down to Lake Cargelligo in 1817. Lake Cargelligo was known as Cudgelligo (or sometimes Cudgellico) in the 1800s and was officially changed when the railway arrived in 1917. After colonial settlement, the land was taken over by settlers and the local Aboriginal population was removed from their traditional country and consolidated at other locations, under the control of the

Aboriginal Protection Board Aboriginal Protection Board, also known as Aborigines Protection Board, Board for the Protection of Aborigines, Aborigines Welfare Board (and in later sources, incorrectly as Aboriginal Welfare Board), and similar names, refers to a number of hi ...

. In 1907, official records showed no Aboriginal people as living at 'Cudgellico Lake'. In 1949, a population of Wiradjuri, together with

Ngiyampaa The Ngiyampaa people, also spelt Ngyiyambaa, Nyammba and Ngemba, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of New South Wales. The generic name refers to an aggregation of three groups, the Ngiyampaa, the Ngiyampaa Wangaaypuwan, and the ...

and

Paakantyi The Paakantyi, or Barkindji or Barkandji, are an Australian Aboriginal tribal group of the Darling River (known to them as the Baaka) basin in Far West New South Wales, Australia. Name The ethnonym Paakantyi means "River people", formed from ...

people—from traditional lands west of the Wiradjuri lands—totalling 240 people was relocated from

Menindee Menindee (derived from Minandichi, the original Indigenous name for Lake Menindee, and frequently but erroneously spelled "Menindie") is a small town in the far west of New South Wales, Australia, in Central Darling Shire, on the banks of the Da ...

to a camp at Murrin Bridge about 15 km from Lake Cargelligo.

Culture

Lake Cargelligo has a culture of watersports on the lake. The town, along with nearby

Tullibigeal Tullibigeal is a small farming community in the Central West, New South Wales, Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2021 census, it had a population of 263. Etymology The name is an Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal word f ...

has a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

team in the

Group 20 Rugby League Group 20 is a rugby league competition in the region of Griffith, New South Wales, Australia. The competition is played in six grades, with these being Under 16s, Under 18s, Women's League-Tag, Women's Tackle, Reserve Grade and First Grade. Cu ...

competition, nicknamed the Sharks. Lake Cargelligo also has an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

team nicknamed the ''Tigers'' in the

Northern Riverina Football League The Northern Riverina Football Netball League (NRFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing five clubs based in the northern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The league features four grades in the Austr ...

Transport

The

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

from

Cootamundra Cootamundra, nicknamed Coota, is a town in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia and within the Riverina. It is within the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council. At the 2016 Census, Cootamundra had a population of 6,782. I ...

Wyalong Wyalong is part of the Bland Shire located in the Northern Riverina Region of New South Wales, Australia. Established as a gold mining town, it is now a quiet town with historic buildings a few kilometres east of West Wyalong, the major distric ...

was extended to Lake Cargelligo in 1917. The railway station opened as 'Cargelligo' in 1917 and was renamed 'Lake Cargelligo' in 1919. Rail-motor passenger services operated to the town until 1983. Since then the railway link has been used for cargo transport, especially for bulk grain which the surrounding farms cultivate. It also has a strong

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

background and

ANZAC The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was originally a First World War army corps of the British Empire under the command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the ...

heritage.

Mining

Rich mineral deposites are found in the area around the township. Mines include: * Bevs Gossanous Mine * Fosters Reef Gold Mine * The Whitton Road Mine is an open cut

magnesite Magnesite is a mineral with the chemical formula ( magnesium carbonate). Iron, manganese, cobalt, and nickel may occur as admixtures, but only in small amounts. Occurrence Magnesite occurs as veins in and an alteration product of ultramafic r ...

mine. * Allys Zone MineDownes, P., NSW Metallic Mineral Occurrence Database. (NSW Department Of Mineral Resources, 1997). * Browns Reef Mine an open cut and underground

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

mine. * Bevs Gossanous Zone Mine * Billys Lead Zone Mine

Solar Thermal Power Station

Lake Cargelligo is the site of the Lake Cargelligo Thermal Power Station, a concentrated Solar Thermal Power station. The plant uses dual axes sun tracking mirrors (

heliostat A heliostat () is a device that reflects sunlight toward a target, turning to compensate for the Sun's apparent motion. The reflector is usually a plane mirror. The target may be a physical object, distant from the heliostat, or a direct ...

s) to reflect

solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...

onto central towers to heat up multiple

graphite Graphite () is a Crystallinity, crystalline allotrope (form) of the element carbon. It consists of many stacked Layered materials, layers of graphene, typically in excess of hundreds of layers. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable ...

solar storage receivers. The heat is then used to generate electricity via a 3MWe steam turbine generator, related steam cycle plant and controls. The 620 heliostats have a combined reflective surface area of 6 080 m². The plant was constructed using a grant from the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

's Advanced Electricity Storage Technologies (AEST) Program. The plant commenced operation in May 2011. More details on the project can be obtained from the Final Public Report – Commonwealth of Australia Department of Resource, Energy and Tourism, August 2011. By 2014, the operator had accumulated more than 25,000 hours of operating data from the

solar power Solar power, also known as solar electricity, is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Solar panels use the photovoltaic effect to c ...

plant. In 2016, the owner announced plans to dismantle the Lake Cargelligo site for redevelopment. The new site will be used for research and development as well as for demonstration purposes. Construction of the new site is set to begin early 2017.

The lake

As its name would suggest, the town of Lake Cargelligo is situated on a lake fed by the

through Lake Curlew. The lake was originally named Regent's Lake by the explorer

after the prince regent of England at the time. The lake was the primary water source for the early mining town, and has continued to remain an integral source of water for Lake Cargelligo's inhabitants and for all users along the lower Lachlan. These days the lake serves recreational uses as well, bird watchers are by far the largest group of visitors to the lake and surrounds due to the incredible diversity of waterfowl and other rare birds in the district. Boating, fishing and

water skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on one or two skis. The sport requires sufficien ...

, also contribute to the town's tourism industry. While the lake was natural, it was not permanent. Earthworks were conducted, in the late 19th century and using horse and scoop, to build a levee bank and deepen sections of the lake, so that it would become more permanent. After many years of drought, it was reported in early 2010 that the lake ran dry for the first time since 1902.http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2801903.htm ABC 7.30 Report 26 January 2010

Climate

The area features a borderline hot semi-arid /

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

( ''BSh / BSk''), with very hot summers and cool winters, and low rainfall throughout the year with a substantial range in temperature. The town is considerably sunny with 128.3 clear days annually.

Gallery

File:Lake Cargelligo Anglican Church 001.JPG, Lake Cargelligo Anglican Church File:Lake Cargelligo Uniting Church 001.JPG, Lake Cargelligo Uniting Church File:Lake Cargelligo - Signal Box & Gantry Crane.jpg, Lake Cargelligo – signal box and gantry crane File:Lake Cargelligo Water Tower & Turntable.jpg, Lake Cargelligo water tower and turntable

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Towns in the Central West (New South Wales) Lachlan Shire Lakes of New South Wales Mining towns in New South Wales