Lake Wellington

Gippsland Lakes
Lake Wellington, Lake Victoria, Lake King, Lake Reeve, Lake Tyers, Lake Coleman
The Entrance to Gippsland Lakes
Landsat 7 imagery of the Gippsland Lakes. Lakes Entrance is visible in the top right of the image.
Location	Gippsland, Victoria
Coordinates	38°00′S 147°39′E / 38.000°S 147.650°E / -38.000; 147.650Coordinates: 38°00′S 147°39′E / 38.000°S 147.650°E / -38.000; 147.650
Primary inflows	Avon, Thomson, Latrobe, Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo rivers
Primary outflows	Bass Strait
Basin countries	Australia
Surface area	354 km2 (137 sq mi)
Surface elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Settlements	Lakes Entrance, Bairnsdale

The Gippsland Lakes are a network of lakes, marshes and lagoons in east Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering an area of about 354 square kilometres (137 sq mi). The largest of the lakes are Lake Wellington (Gunai language: Murla), Lake King and Lake Victoria. The lakes are collectively fed by the Avon, Thomson, Latrobe, Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo rivers.

The Gippsland Lakes were formed by two principal processes. The first is river delta alluvial deposition of sediment brought in by the rivers which flow into the lakes. Silt deposited by this process forms into long jetties which can run many kilometres into a lake, as exemplified by the Mitchell River silt jetties that run into Lake King. The second process is the action of sea current in Bass Strait which created the Ninety Mile Beach and cut off the river deltas from the sea.

Once the lakes were closed off a new cycle started, whereby the water level of the lakes would gradually rise until the waters broke through the barrier beach and the level would drop down until it equalised with sea-level. Eventually the beach would close-off the lakes and the cycle would begin anew. Sometimes it would take many years before a new channel to the sea was formed and not necessarily in the same place as the last one.

In 1889 a wall was built to fix the position of a naturally occurring channel between the lakes and the ocean at Lakes Entrance, to stabilise the water level, create a harbour for fishing boats and open up the lakes to shipping. This entrance needs to be dredged regularly, or the same process that created the Gippsland Lakes would render the entrance too shallow for seagoing vessels to pass through.