Lake Eucumbene

Lake Eucumbene
Location	Snowy Mountains, Southern New South Wales
Coordinates	36°08′S 148°42′E
Lake type	reservoir
Primary inflows	Eucumbene River
Primary outflows	Eucumbene River
Basin countries	Australia
Water volume	6,735,300 m3
Residence time	1958 years
Settlements	Adaminaby

The remains of the sunken town of Adaminaby, on the banks of Lake Eucumbene.

Lake Eucumbene (pronounced you-come-been) is a man-made lake on the Eucumbene River in the Snowy Mountains of Southern New South Wales in Australia. The lake was created by the damming of the river as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The dam was built between 1956 and 1958.

Eucumbene Dam is an earthfill dam 116 metres high and 686 metres thick at the base. The wall is 580 meters long and carries a roadway[1]. Its storage capacity is 4,300 million cubic metres, approximately equal to nine times the volume of Sydney Harbour.

Lake Eucumbene is connected by tunnels to the Snowy and Murrumbidgee Rivers, and to Tumut Pondage and Tantangara Dam.

Human Environment

The town of Adaminaby was on the site proposed for the dam. Most of the buildings in the town relocated to a site on the Snowy Mountains Highway, but some buildings were not flooded and remain at Old Adaminaby which, along with Anglers Reach is a popular destination for fishing holidays for introduced trout. Eucumbene is one of the premier trout fishing lakes in New South Wales.

As of April 2007, the waters of Lake Eucumbene had receded so far due to a pro-longed drought that Old Adaminaby began to reveal itself after being underwater for over 50 years - gaining the attention of the global media[2]. Of particular interest was the re-emergence of the old 6 Mile Bridge near Anglers Reach on the former Highway route to Kiandra.

Lake Eucumbene pictured 5th November 2006

See also

• Adaminaby

References

• Snowy:Power of a Nation
• Snowy Scheme - SnowyHydro