The Tuggerah Lakes

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The Tuggerah Lakes is located on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It consists of three interconnected coastal lagoons: Lake Munmorah, Budgewoi Lake and Tuggerah Lake. The three lakes cover a total area of 77 square kilometres (29.7 square miles) and have a perimeter of 105 km (65 mi). The largest of the lakes is Tuggerah Lake with an area of 54 km² (20.8 mi²). All three lakes are shallow, with average depths of less than two metres (6.5 feet).^[1]

There is only limited movement of water between the lakes and sea through a narrow channel at The Entrance, and hence tides in the main body of the lakes are negligible. On occasions, this channel has slowly silted up with sand and the lakes have been completely cut off from the Pacific Ocean until a large flood scours out the channel again. It has been suggested that there was once a second entrance on the Budgewoi Peninsula. Although there is little evidence of this being the case since European settlement, there have been times where waves have washed over the dunes there into Budgewoi Lake during times of high seas.^[2]

The lakes and their surroundings form part of the Wyong Shire, the local government area and can be crossed by road over three bridges.

• The Entrance Bridge, which passes over The Entrance Channel.
• Toukley Bridge, that joins Toukley and Gorokan at the the channel between Tuggerah Lake and Budgewoi Lake.
• Budgewoi Bridge, that crosses over the channel between Budgewoi Lake and Lake Munmorah at Budgewoi.

The Tuggerah Lakes were inhabited by the local Indigenous Australians known as the Darkinjung people prior to European discovery in 1796. The lake system was discovered by the first Governor of Tasmania, Colonel David Collins, who had arrived on the First Fleet. They were found during the search for an escaped convict woman, Mary Morgan, who was said to be living with the Aborigines to the North of the Hawkesbury River.^[3]

The lakes are a major resource and provide not only recreational and fishing facilities, but also cooling waters for the Munmorah Power Station. It is also the main basin into which all the rivers and streams drain and it receives nutrients, chemicals and sediment from the entire area. Sediments and nutrients have been discharging into the lakes system for thousands of years although the process has greatly accelerated with urban development.^[4]

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