Lake Leake (

palawa kani Palawa kani is a constructed language created by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as a composite Tasmanian languages, Tasmanian language, based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various languages once spoken by the Abo ...

: kunawi) is the name of both a man-made water storage reservoir and a small

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the eastern midlands of

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

. The locality is split between two local authorities: *

Northern Midlands Council Northern Midlands Council is a local government body in Tasmania, extending south of Launceston into the northern region of the Tasmanian central midlands. Northern Midlands is classified as a rural local government area and has a populatio ...

(53%) * Glamorgan-Spring Bay Council (47%) The lake can hold of water. The lake was named after Charles Henry Leake (1819-1889), a member of the

Tasmanian Legislative Council The Tasmanian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. It is one of the two Chambers of parliament, chambers of the Parliament, the other being the Tasmanian House of Assembly, House of Assembly. Both ho ...

. At the 2006 census, Lake Leake had a population of 176.

Features and location

The lake is used for recreational fishing, for

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada. Two ecological forms of brook trout h ...

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

and

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

. The village is built on land owned by the Northern Midlands Council. Inhabitants must purchase a license to have a building there, and are restricted in the number of days per year they can live there. The main purpose is to accommodate recreational anglers. Water flowing out from the lake has an electrical conductivity of 56 μS/cm. Rawlinna is a locality located between the south side of the lake and Lake Yaleena, another water impoundment. Lake Yaleena is a privately built dammed lake, specifically for fishing. It is a business that includes accommodation in cabins.

History

The

traditional custodian The concept of First Nations Australian traditional custodianship derives from Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' strong traditional connection with the lands and seas they reside on, known collectively as "Cou ...

s of the area were the Peenrymairmemener clan of the

North Midlands The North Midlands is a loosely defined area covering the northern parts of the Midlands in England. It is not an International Territorial Level region like the East Midlands or the West Midlands. A statistical definition in 1881 included the ...

nation. The area was originally a wetland, or series of lagoons, and was transcribed by Europeans as koan.ner.we (written in

as kunawi). The area was described by contemporary colonial British as a "resort of the natives" - an Aboriginal meeting place, and contemporaries describe finding several Aboriginal huts in the area. The area contains remains of Aboriginal artefacts and a quarry where the Peenrymairmemener crafted stone tools. The area was renamed by colonials "Kearney's Bogs" and then Lake Leake after the dam was constructed. The reservoir was constructed after a long debate. A high dam was finished in 1884. The initial capacity was and an area of . In 1971 the

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

highest point was raised by to increase storage capacity. Water is released for irrigation and also stored to maintain a fishing facility. Lake Leake is usually at least half full.

Climate

References

External links

* * updated once a day * updated once a day, includes evaporation, wind run and hours of sun {{authority control Towns in Tasmania Leake Midlands (Tasmania)