Lake Eildon

The Lake Eildon is a reservoir in the south of the Australian state of Victoria. It was created by the damming of the Goulburn River at Eildon Weir. Upon reaching the destination storage it has a volume of 3.334158 billion m³ and thus contains six times as much water as Sydney Harbour. After the Dartmouth Dam it is the second largest reservoir in Victoria. It is located in the town of Eildon Lake Eildon in the National Park.

Construction

The lake was dammed in several phases. The first dam was built from 1915 to 1929 and accumulated in the reservoir at that time called Sugarloaf Reservoir. 1935 the lake volume was increased to 337 million cubic meters and then 1951-1955 to almost tenfold. The maximum depth is 79 m. On average, 91 % of the water is fed from the Lake Eildon to Goulburn Weir and the Waranga Basin, where it is used for irrigation of agricultural land in the valley of the Goulburn River.

Drought

In recent years, the Lake Eildon hardly filled, so that the once thriving tourist resorts around the lake could no longer attract visitors. This led to massive economic difficulties. Although much water was needed for irrigation, the outflow through careful regulation was kept relatively constant. On 8 May 2007, the water level fell to its lowest level up to that point, so that the reservoir contained only 5.3 % of its nominal capacity.

In June 2007, the Victorian Government announced that the Lake Eildon should be connected by a pipeline from the Goulburn River to the drinking water supply for Melbourne.

In the small town Boonie Doon west of the dam, the holiday scenes of the Australian film The Castle were filmed.

Recreation 2010/2011

After many years with below average rainfall completed in 2010 above-average rainfall of Lake Eildon. In May 2010, it reached 23 % of its rated volume and in March 2011 even 82.5%.