| Lake Bonney | |
|---|---|
| Lake Bonney seen from Barmera | |
| Location | Riverland, South Australia |
| Primary inflows | Murray River |
| Primary outflows | Murray River |
| Catchment area | Murray Darling Basin |
| Basin countries | Australia |
| Settlements | Barmera, South Australia |
Lake Bonney is a freshwater lake located in the Riverland region of South Australia. The town of Barmera is located on its shores. [1]
The lake was discovered by Europeans on 12 March 1838, when encountered by the overlanding party of Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney, who were the first to drove livestock from New South Wales to Adelaide. Hawdon named the lake that day after Bonney. At that time it was a fine sheet of water, but was dried out and muddy three years later in 1841 when the police expedition led by Thomas O'Halloran passed by on its way to rescue other overlanders at the Rufus River.
When Charles Sturt passed by in 1844 on his expedition into the interior of Australia, he surveyed Lake Bonney for the first time, as well as the creek connecting it to the River Murray. James Collins Hawker, then residing at Moorundie, assisted Sturt’s surveyor Poole. In appreciation, on 2 September 1844 Sturt named the creek Hawkers Creek, but it was never officially adopted and is known as Chambers Creek.[2]
Name duplication within South Australia for both the lake and its feeder creek sometimes causes confusion, because there is also Lake Bonney S.E (South Australia), and Chambers Creek in the Flinders Ranges.