ANU professor and geologist, Brad Pillans, is a Lake George expert and has been studying the lake’s history going back millions of years.
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00:03 So since I was a boy and I first saw the lake in 1963,
00:13 in fact, it looked much like it is at the moment in terms
00:16 of the level of water in the lake.
00:19 But in those days, there were boats.
00:22 There were sailing boats.
00:23 There were power boats.
00:24 And there were fishing boats, small.
00:27 So it was a place that many people in Canberra
00:31 came, particularly at weekends during summer,
00:33 for family picnics and to enjoy the water.
00:38 And in between 1963, when I first
00:40 saw the lake, and the present, the lake
00:43 has come and gone spectacularly.
00:45 And there have been some periods,
00:47 like in the early 2000s, when the lake was completely dry
00:51 or nearly dry.
00:52 And there were periods like now, like in 1990 and 1976,
00:59 when the lake level was pretty much the same level it is now,
01:02 but only for a short period.
01:05 So wild theories about why the water level
01:09 changed so dramatically.
01:11 And there were ideas that there were subterranean tunnels that
01:15 would take the water to a lake in New Zealand,
01:18 or South America, or China, or anywhere.
01:23 And of course, those sorts of theories
01:26 are really the myths and legends, if you like.
01:31 And they have no scientific basis.
01:33 The reality is that the amount of water
01:36 in the lake, which has no natural outlet, I might add.
01:39 It's a closed basin.
01:40 So the water that falls from rain on the lake floor
01:45 and runs into the lake from the creeks that
01:49 drain into the lake, that supplies the water to the lake.
01:55 And it's balanced by evaporation.
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