Celebrating the history of forest and bushfire management in Victoria – (Peter McHugh – 2018-19) Page 1

Forest Fortnight #19 – Lake Elizabeth

….

Thursday 1 August 2019 Lake Elizabeth stretches languidly for about a kilometre

along the heavily forested valley of the East Barwon

River, about seven kilometres east of the township of

Forrest in the Otway Ranges.

It’s a popular attraction for campers, walkers, and

canoeists, not least because you can spot platypus in

the early morning and at twilight…. if you’re quiet and

lucky.

Forrest was a thriving timber town from the early days

of settlement, but especially after 1945 when timber

was desperately needed to feed Melbourne’s post-war

construction boom.

For some years the Forester-in-Charge of the District

was Bill Meadows.

During a prolonged deluge on a long weekend in June

1952 Bill and his assistant Mark Stump were “playing

endless games of monopoly”. Records show that on 17

and 18 June, the total rainfall at Tanybryn near the top

of the Otway Ranges was 40 inches, which is almost

one metre of rain, or nearly enough to float Noah’s Ark.

Forest Overseer Jack Hoult was told by an East Barwon

farmer that while the West Barwon was a raging flood,

the East Barwon was just a trickle.

Something was up…. so they drove the Land Rover

cautiously up the Kaanglang Road, which had recently

been completely rebuilt, to discover that the

mountainside along with their new road had

disappeared in a gigantic landslip, leaving the steeply

pitching bedrock glistening in the light rain.

A huge 48-hectare slab of sandstone with

approximately 6 million cubic metres of soggy earth

had slid into the East Barwon River below damming its

flow. The water in due course over-topped the loose

earth wall causing more flooding downstream.

Being the man in charge, Bill took numerous calls from

Melbourne newspapers who asked what the new lake

was called. The headline news in 1952 was the

ascension to the throne of new Queen Elizabeth, so Bill

patriotically replied: “Lake Elizabeth” and the name

stuck, although some of the locals grumbled because

they wanted it called Lake Thompson after a local

farmer.

Twelve months later on 5th August 1953 and following

more heavy rains the top 26 metres of the dam

breached and another surge of water carried tonnes of

gravel and boulders several kilometres downstream.

The residual lake now contains about one fifth of its

original volume.

Lake Elizabeth is a site of National geomorphological

significance. Another well-known example of a

perched lake is Tali Karng in the Alpine National Park

north of Heyfield which was formed some 1500 years

ago.

See the original story by Dr Peter Greig written in 2015.

https://www.victoriasforestryheritage.org.au/people1

/articles-about/145-meadows-bill-lake-elizabeth.html

A bend on the Barwon River near Forrest Vic. 1906. Source: State Library Victoria.

Photo taken in August 1952. Source: Sun newspaper

Celebrating the history of forest and bushfire management in Victoria – (Peter McHugh – 2018-19) Page 2

A giant 48 ha slab of sandstone, soggy mud and wet forest slid into the East Barwon River in mid-June 1952 after 1000 mm of rain

fell in just two days. Source: Corangamite CMA.

The profile of the massive slip. Source: Rosengren 1984.

Lake Elizabeth – circa 1960s.

Early morning at Lake Elizabeth. Photo: Doug Gimesy.