The Bore Pump Resumes Operation - May 2024

Thanks to Ranger Adrian Howard, funding was secured from Victorian Fisheries Authority to replace the inoperative bore pump

Subject to water testing, regular pumping should commence shortly. 

 Update
At the moment, for an unknown reason, the pump is pumping silted water (cloudy). Park Vic are investigating the reasons for this and how best to resolve that.  It is a Parks Victoria priority to return the pump to its normal function and pump our full water allocation into the Lake when its safe to do so for the environment and the pump itself. 

Pumping Restrictions:

PV's license to 'Take & Use' is limited to 70 Megalitres per year (This is understood to be 'financial year')

Daily pumping limit is  0.28 Megalitres.

How long to 'fill the lake' ?

The lake surface area is 15 Hectares,  70 Megalitres will raise the level by around 440 mm,   Considering the lake level fell by a meter in 10 years we may assume the net effect of rainfall and evaporation would be around a 10cm drop, so we can expect the pumping operation to to raise the surface level 340 mm each year.
(Could someone check my sums - I failed year 12 Applied Mathematics!  🥺 )

Based on these very rough calculations, Karkarook Lake will take about four years to reach its design surface level.
As this happens, we should slowly see the return of the wetland, sub-surface vegetation and the ecology to sustain our native birds.

Friends of Karkarook Park will monitor the water levels Monthly and record results here.