Lake Hindmarsh | |
---|---|
Gour (Wemba Wemba) | |
Location in Victoria | |
Location | Wimmera, Victoria |
Coordinates | 36°03′41″S141°54′47″E / 36.06139°S 141.91306°E [1] |
Type | Eutrophic |
Primary inflows | Wimmera River |
Primary outflows | Outlet Creek (When full), evaporation |
Catchment area | 23,500 km2 (9,100 sq mi) |
Basin countries | Australia |
Max. length | 22 km (14 mi) |
Max. width | 7 km (4.3 mi) |
Surface area | 135 km2 (52 sq mi) |
Average depth | 3.4 m (11 ft) |
Max. depth | 3.65 m (12.0 ft) |
Water volume | 378 GL (8.3×1010 imp gal; 1.00×1011 US gal) |
Lake Hindmarsh, an ephemeral lake located in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia, is the state's largest natural freshwater lake. The nearest towns are Jeparit to the south and Rainbow to the north. After more than a decade of drought, in early 2011 the lake filled as a result of flooding in the region. The Wemba Wemba name of the lake is recorded as Gour or Koor. [2] [3]
Lake Hindmarsh is the northernmost lake of the Wimmera River Terminal Wetlands, and receives water directly from the Wimmera River. When full, the lake covers 13,500 hectares (33,000 acres), is 3.4 metres (11 ft) deep and holds 378 gigalitres (8.3×1010 imp gal; 1.00×1011 US gal) of water. [4] It is a wetland of national significance. On the rare occasions when Lake Hindmarsh overflows, water runs, via Outlet Creek (Wergaia: Krumelak), [5] to the deeper Lake Albacutya (Wergaia: Ngelbakutya), [5] which has been recognised under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of international importance. [6]
Flat and shallow, Lake Hindmarsh is subject to very high evaporation. When it is full, evaporation from the lake is around 140,000 megalitres (3.1×1010 imp gal; 3.7×1010 US gal) per year. With flows down the Wimmera River averaging only half of that, the lake rarely fills, but if it does, the water takes three to four years to evaporate entirely.
The lake was full during the wet years of the early to mid-1970s. It supported a commercial fishing industry and was a destination for tourism and water sports, with a water-skiing club having a membership of over 100. The lake filled again in 1996, but then received no further water from the Wimmera River, and had dried up by 2000. It remained dry for almost a decade.
In October 2009, water from the Wimmera River trickled into Lake Hindmarsh for the first time in thirteen years. [7] The 2010 Victorian floods of September raised lake water levels higher and triggered a revival of birdlife. [8] The January 2011 Victorian floods in the Wimmera catchment raised hopes that the lake would fill, and possibly overflow into the lakes to the north. [9] However, Outlet Creek remained dry.
The area around the lake is the traditional country of the Gromiluk, a branch of the Wotjobaluk people. [10] They speak the Wergaia language. [11]
Explorer Edward Eyre camped at Lake Hindmarsh in 1838 while searching for an overland route from Melbourne to Adelaide, [12] and named the lake after the then governor of South Australia, John Hindmarsh. [13] European pastoralists occupied land around the lake from 1845, and the Moravian Ebenezer Mission was established nearby in 1859.
Lake Eyre, officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in the east-central part of the Far North region of South Australia, some 700 km (435 mi) north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the lowest natural point in Australia, at approximately 15 m (49 ft) below sea level. On the rare occasions that it fills completely, it is the largest lake in Australia, covering an area of up to 9,500 km2 (3,668 sq mi). When the lake is full, it has the same salinity as seawater, but becomes hypersaline as the lake dries up and the water evaporates.
The Wyperfeld National Park is the third largest national park in Victoria, Australia, located in the Mallee district, approximately 450 kilometres (280 mi) northwest of Melbourne, The national park was declared in 1921 and expanded significantly to protect 357,017 hectares of mallee, woodland, and heathland. For management purposes, the Wyperfeld National Park is managed with the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, Murray-Sunset National Park, Lake Albacutya Park and Murray-Kulkyne Park as part of the Victorian Mallee Parks.
The Rural City of Horsham is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the western part of the state. It covers an area of 4,267 square kilometres (1,647 sq mi) and in June 2018, had a population of 19,875. It includes the towns of Brimpaen, Dadswells Bridge, Dooen, Haven, Horsham, Laharum, Natimuk, Noradjuha and Pimpinio. It was formed in 1995 by the amalgamation of the City of Horsham, most of the Shire of Wimmera and Shire of Arapiles, and part of the Shire of Kowree.
Nhill is a town in the Wimmera, in western Victoria, Australia. Nhill is located on the Western Highway, halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne. At the 2016 census, Nhill had a population of 1,749. "Nhill" is believed to be a Wergaia word meaning "early morning mist rising over water" or "white mist rising from the water".
Dimboola is a town in the Shire of Hindmarsh in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia, 334 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.
The Avoca River, an inland intermittent river of the north–central catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower Riverina bioregion and Central Highlands and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The headwaters of the Avoca River rise on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees Range and descend to flow into the ephemeral Kerang Lakes.
The Yarriambiack Creek, an inland intermittent watercourse of the Wimmera catchment, is located in the Wimmera region of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Yarriambiack Creek flows generally north and drains into Lake Coorong, one of a series of ephemeral lakes, northeast of Hopetoun.
The Mallee is a sub-region of Loddon Mallee covering the most north-westerly part of Victoria, Australia and is bounded by the South Australian and New South Wales borders. Definitions of the south-eastern boundary vary, however, all are based on the historic Victorian distribution of mallee eucalypts. These trees dominate the surviving vegetation through most of Mallee,. Its biggest settlements are Mildura and Swan Hill.
The Wimmera River, an inland intermittent river of the Wimmera catchment, is located in the Grampians and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising in the Pyrenees, on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Wimmera River flows generally north by west and drains into Lake Hindmarsh and Lake Albacutya, a series of ephemeral lakes that, whilst they do not directly empty into a defined watercourse, form part of the Murray River catchment of the Murray-Darling basin.
Lake Tyrrell is a shallow, salt-crusted depression in the Mallee district of north-west Victoria, in Australia. The name 'Tyrrell' is derived from the local Wergaia word for 'sky', the Boorong Aboriginal people of the area being distinguished for their interest in star-lore. The Boorong, with their astronomical traditions, told stories connected with constellations in the night sky.
Ebenezer Mission, also known as Wimmera mission, Hindmarsh mission and Dimboola mission, was a mission station for Aboriginal people established near Lake Hindmarsh in Victoria, Australia in 1859 by the Moravian Church on the land of the Wotjobaluk. The first missionaries were two Germans, Reverend Friedrich Hagenauer and Reverend F.W. Spieseke. In 1861 the Victorian Colonial Government gazetted 1,897 acres (7.68 km2) as a reserve for the Ebenezer Mission Station. The mission was established a few years after the failure of the Moravian Lake Boga mission in Wemba-Wemba territory.
The Fairbairn Dam is an earth-filled embankment dam across the Nogoa River, located southwest of Emerald in Central Queensland, Australia. Constructed in 1972 for the primary purpose of irrigation, the impoundment created by the dam serves as one of the major potable water supplies for the region and assists with some flood mitigation.
Lake Albacutya is an ephemeral lake located in Albacutya within the Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia. It is one of a series of terminal lakes on the Wimmera River, which form the largest land-locked drainage system in Victoria. Lake Albacutya is designated as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
William "Uncle" John Kennedy was a lifelong activist for the rights of Australian Aboriginal people, a Wotjobaluk clan elder of the people who spoke the Wergaia language in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia. He was born on the banks of the Wimmera River, not far from the Ebenezer Mission. He was the great grandson of Dick-a-Dick, a member of the first Australian cricket team to tour England in 1867–68.
The Wergaia or Werrigia people are an Aboriginal Australian group in the Mallee and Wimmera regions of north-Western Victoria, made up of a number of clans. The people were also known as the Maligundidj which means the people belonging to the mali (mallee) eucalypt bushland which covers much of their territory.
Wergaia or Werrigia is an Australian Aboriginal language in the Wimmera region of north-Western Victoria. The Wergaia language consisted of four distinct dialects: Wudjubalug/Wotjobaluk, Djadjala/Djadjali, Buibadjali, Biwadjali. Wergaia was in turn apparently a dialect of the Wemba Wemba language, a member of the Kulinic branch of Pama–Nyungan.
The Richardson River, an inland intermittent river of the Wimmera catchment, located in the Grampians and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. Rising on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, the Richardson River flows generally north and drains into Lake Buloke, one of a series of ephemeral lakes that, whilst they do not directly empty into a defined watercourse, form part of the Murray River catchment of the Murray-Darling basin.
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The Wotjobaluk are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria. They are closely related to the Wergaia people.
The Barengi Gadjin Land Council was formed in 2005 to represent the Wotjobaluk, Jardwadjali, Wergaia and Jupagalk peoples. The Council manages native title rights across Western Victoria in an area "roughly described as the Wimmera River from the head of the Yarriambiack Creek through to Outlet Creek at the northern end of Lake Albacutya". The Council is governed by a board of directors representing various family groups and has offices in Wail and Horsham. The current chairperson is Dylan Clark.