"In the beginning"

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views of the blog management, (on the other hand, they are not necessarily not the views of the blog management).

No effort has been made to stay within the bounds of the truth in this blog as it has always been the view of the management that the truth should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Lake Argyle Post 2


Some more pictures of Lake Argyle and the surrounds.

There were a couple of questions about the last post that are easier
answered by doing a follow up than in comments.


If you enlarge this photo you will see on the LH side the quarry face
from where the rock for the wall was blasted and the roadway that
was built to transport it to the wall site.

Dave queried whether there were crocodiles in the lake, yes,
estimated population 25,000 but they are ALL freshwater species
which are fish eaters and considered harmless to humans?????


There are lots of fish, including the famous Barramundi which is a
great sporting fish to catch and exceptionally good to eat, another
native to the lake is the "Archer" fish, from the tour boat we went
on if you held a small piece of bread out as a target they would
shoot a jet of water at it, if they scored a hit we were asked to
drop the bread into the water as a reward, these little guys were
only about 6 to 8 inches long but could be very accurate up to
about 8 feet, they normally shoot at insects, and gulp them down
when they knock 'em out of the air.

There are many islands in the lake, the tops of peaks that are above
the water line, these have become safe havens for animals birds and
reptiles
like the rock wallaby seen here.

This is a barramundi hatchery that has been established to breed
"Barra" for freshwater impoundments throughout Australia's
north, including of course Lake Argyle.

On the left of this photo is the hydro electric plant that generates
power for the surrounding area.


Jim asked for a comparison to the three gorges dam in China; there
is no comparison that I can make, the dam in China dams the
Yangtze River where it is enclosed by hills on either side restricting
it to an average of 1 mile wide, compared to our 40 km average,
their dam wall is concrete and 178
metres high, because of the huge
depth they generate huge
quantities of hydro electric power which
seems to be the main purpose of the whole scheme, the quantiry of
water stored is also huge.

They have had to displace 1.3 million people to build, while Lake Argyle
only displaced one family homestead and part of their property.
From the little bit of research I did, they also seem to be encountering
some serious problems like land slip and silting up of downstream
areas, we have not encountered any of these problems as yet and
have been up and running a lot longer the the Three Gorges Scheme.

7 comments:

Merle said...

Hi Peter ~ Very interesting after I
Stopped Script 5 times. I take it you have been there? Take care, Merle.

Jeanette said...

Hi Peter
Great post I have never been to W.A. so i can sit at my puter and get a guided tour i wouldn't like to try swimming with freshwater crocs take care. jan

Margaret said...

Hi Peter, did you and Wazza catch a barra there? Really interesting post yet again, Cheers Margaret

Lois Lane said...

Thanks for taking us on a fieldtrip. Great photos!

Laurie said...

Treat pictures!!

Laurie said...

I mean, GREAT pictures.

kenju said...

I love the photos, Peter!

BTW: I watched Barbara Walters special tonight with Terri Irwin and it was wonderful to hear her talk of Steve and life without him.