Sunday 24th June - Lake Argyle

Lake Argyle Cruise

Very windy and cold.  The wind had been high all night and the temperature never got above about 15 degrees during the day.  This is unusual for the area.

Lake Argyle is a huge man made lake which was created by damming the Ord River back in 1970.  This was to retain the water flowing into the river system in the wet and using it to irrigate the fertile soil in the plains to the north [around Kununurra, which owes it's existence to this scheme].

Lake Argyle WA

Cotton and rice have been tried as crops without much success and nowadays most of the area is growing mangoes, chia and sandalwood.  Perishables are difficult to get to market owing to the huge distances involved so are not really viable.

Freshie in Lake Argyle WA

A by product of the lake's creation has been a safe haven for fish, freshwater crocodiles and birds which all flourish.  There was an ill fated scheme to breed barramundi in pens within the lake but unfortunately a cyclone damaged the nets allowing all the fish to escape into the lake and the project was abandoned.  Due to the unusual breeding characteristics of this fish, the escapees were all male so they will never be able to reproduce within the lake.  The lake abounds in a catfish which was not a popular choice at the fish markets until it was renamed silver cobbler and now it sells very well!
The freshwater crocodile population of the lake is said to be about 40,000 and because there is so much food for them they grow bigger than anywhere else with males reaching about 4 metres in length.  Even at this size the largest prey would be a bird as they have to swallow the food whole unlike a saltwater crocodile which can tear it's prey apart.

Sunset on Lake Argyle WA

We learnt all this on a most informative lake cruise which took us out to the centre of the lake where the swell can be 2.5metres as the lake is so vast.  Fortunately the wind had died down by then so it was just choppy.  The cruise included an afternoon tea of home baked cookies and wine, cheese and biscuits at sunset. Really good.