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Groundwater resource management and community consultation - Blue Lake, South Australia

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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The Blue Lake is a high value groundwater resource in a high risk environment. The lake has several beneficial uses. It is a water supply for the City of Mount Gambier. It is the premier tourist attraction for the City, because of its picturesque setting within a volcanic crater and its habit of changing colour from a steel grey-green in winter to an intense blue in summer. The lake also supports a considerable diversity of aquatic life, although individual numbers of any species are not abundant. The City of Mount Gambier is located on the northern flank of the volcanic complex . The complex occurs within an unconfined karstic limestone aquifer, and the lake is a window into the groundwater. Historical waste disposal practices have caused a number of point-source pollution plumes within the unconfined aquifer. Sewage and septic tank effluent routinely reached the aquifer before a sewerage system was installed in the mid 1960s. The effluent has polluted the groundwater beneath the city with nitrate. Regional hydraulic gradients show that the city is located immediately upgradient of the lake. Nitrogen levels in the lake have climbed to around 3.6 mg/L. There appears to be a relationship between extraction rate from the lake and nitrogen levels in the lake. Other pollutants are not evident in the lake. The Engineering and Water Supply Department are developing a Management Plan for the Blue Lake and the surrounding groundwaters. This Plan is being developed with the assistance of a small group from the community and with a broader community consultation program, with several benefits. These include community education about the issues and community ownership of the solutions.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Groundwater resource management and community consultation - Blue Lake, South Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/612c71f2-efc1-444a-8fb4-6503325d6172
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        139.99,
        -38.12
      ],
      [
        141.06,
        -38.12
      ],
      [
        141.06,
        -37.22
      ],
      [
        139.99,
        -37.22
      ],
      [
        139.99,
        -38.12
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Groundwater resource management and community consultation - Blue Lake, South Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/groundwater-resource-management-and-community-consultation-blue-lake-south-australia