Blue Lake | |
---|---|
Location in New South Wales | |
Location | Snowy Mountains, New South Wales |
Coordinates | 36°24′13″S148°18′54″E / 36.40361°S 148.31500°E |
Type | Glacial cirque |
Primary inflows | Snowmelt |
River sources | Blue Lake Creek |
Basin countries | Australia |
Designation | |
Surface area | 16 ha (40 acres) |
Max. depth | 28 m (92 ft) |
Surface elevation | 1,890 m (6,200 ft) AHD |
Frozen | June–October |
Designated | 17 March 1996 |
Reference no. | 800 [1] |
The Blue Lake is one of only four cirque lakes found in mainland Australia. The other three, Cootapatamba, Albina, and Club, are shallower and are held entirely by terminal moraines. Blue Lake's valley contains the best-developed glacial features in the Kosciuszko National Park alpine area of New South Wales. It was recognised as a wetland of international importance on 17 March 1996 when a 320-hectare (790-acre) area, comprising the lake and its surrounds, including nearby Hedley Tarn, was designated Ramsar Site 800 under the Ramsar Convention on wetlands. [2] [3] The lake lies within the Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves.
Blue Lake is 16 hectares (40 acres) in area and 28 metres (92 ft) deep. Its surface is entirely open water, with boulders reaching the shore in the east and north east, and the other shores being pebbly. It lies about 28 kilometres (17 mi) west of Jindabyne and 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) north of Charlotte Pass at an altitude of 1,890 metres (6,200 ft) above mean sea level, in a glacial landscape. [4]
The lake was formed when glaciers flowing from the Great Dividing Range converged and carved out a basin in the granite bedrock. It receives water from Blue Lake Creek, originating from Mount Twynam and from snowmelt. The surface of the lake is frozen for about four months of the year; it overflows in spring with the melting of the snow while, during the rest of the year, the water level remains stable. [4]
The lake is surrounded by alpine herbfield, heaths, bogs and fens supporting a range of native plants and animals, including rare, vulnerable and endangered species, as well as several kinds of invertebrate restricted to the alpine zone. Rare or threatened plants found within the Ramsar site include the branched carraway, wedge oschatzia and snow-wort, as well as the endangered ecological community of Montane Peatlands and Swamps. Threatened animals found there include the mountain pygmy possum and broad-toothed rat as well as the critically endangered fish the Kosciuszko galaxias. [4] [5]
Blue Lake may be reached by a 2-hour walk from Charlotte Pass. Human activities in the area include environmental education, bushwalking, skiing, and ice climbing. Since all five glacial lakes in the Kosciuszko alpine area are naturally low in nutrients, in order to maintain nutrient balance and prevent contamination, camping is not permitted in the catchments of the glacial lakes. [3]
The Snowy Mountains, known informally as "The Snowies", is an IBRA subregion in southern New South Wales, Australia, and is the tallest mountain range in mainland Australia, being part of the continent's Great Dividing Range cordillera system. It makes up the northeastern half of the Australian Alps and contains Australia's five tallest peaks, all of which are above 2,100 m (6,890 ft), including the tallest Mount Kosciuszko, which reaches to a height of 2,228 m (7,310 ft) above sea level. The offshore Tasmanian highlands makes up the only other major alpine region present in the whole of Australia.
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The Kosciuszko National Park is a 6,900-square-kilometre (2,700 sq mi) national park and contains mainland Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko, for which it is named, and Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia. Its borders contain a mix of rugged mountains and wilderness, characterised by an alpine climate, which makes it popular with recreational skiers and bushwalkers.
Charlotte Pass is a snow resort and village in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. The pass is in the Kosciuszko National Park where the Kosciuszko Road crosses Kangaroo Ridge. Charlotte Pass is the closest village to Mount Kosciuszko, the tallest mountain in Australia.
A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, also known as "The Convention on Wetlands", an international environmental treaty signed on 2 February 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, under the auspices of UNESCO. It came into force on 21 December 1975, when it was ratified by a sufficient number of nations. It provides for national action and international cooperation regarding the conservation of wetlands, and wise sustainable use of their resources. Ramsar identifies wetlands of international importance, especially those providing waterfowl habitat.
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The Ginini Flats Wetlands Ramsar Site, also known as the Ginini Flats Subalpine Bog Complex, is a wetland in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) that has been recognised as being of international importance by designation under the Ramsar Convention. It was listed on 11 March 1996 as Ramsar Site 793, and is the only such site in the ACT. It lies in the Australian Alps, close to the boundary of the ACT with New South Wales.
Thomsons Lake Nature Reserve is a lake nature reserve around Thomsons Lake in the City of Cockburn, Western Australia, approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of the central business district of Perth, the state capital, and on the southern fringes of the Perth metropolitan area. It is in the suburb of Beeliar, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) south-west of Jandakot Airport. It is a still largely natural wetland, with adjoining native vegetation, surrounded by land developed for housing and agriculture, that regularly supports large numbers of shorebirds and other waterbirds.
The Discovery Bay Coastal Park is a linear protected area of coastal land in western Victoria, south-eastern Australia. The 10,460-hectare (25,800-acre) park extends along the coast of Discovery Bay from Cape Nelson north-westwards for 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the border with South Australia. The park was listed on Australia's now-defunct Register of the National Estate, and lies within the traditional lands of the Gunditjmara people.
The Western District Lakes of Victoria, in the Western District of Victoria, south-eastern Australia, were recognised on 15 December 1982 as wetlands of international importance by listing under the Ramsar Convention, as Ramsar site no.268.
The North Victorian Wetlands, also known as the Kerang Wetlands, comprise an extensive series of over 100 freshwater, brackish and saline lakes and swamps on the floodplain of the Loddon River where it enters the Murray valley, in the vicinity of the town of Kerang, in northern Victoria, south-eastern Australia. They are important for a variety, and sometimes large numbers, of waterbirds.
Little Waterhouse Lake is a freshwater coastal lagoon in the Waterhouse Conservation Area of north-eastern Tasmania, Australia. In 1982 it was designated a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
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Galaxias supremus, commonly known as the Kosciuszko galaxias, is a galaxiid of the genus Galaxias, a member of the Mountain galaxias species complex group of freshwater fish, found in Australia.
Galaxias tantangara, commonly known as the stocky galaxias, is a galaxiid of the genus Galaxias, a member of the Mountain galaxias species complex group of freshwater fish, found in Australia. Only discovered in 2014, the fish is classed as critically endangered, mainly because of being preyed upon by introduced species of trout.