Tuggerah Lakes

The Tuggerah Lakes, a wetland system of three interconnected coastal lagoons, are located on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia and comprise Lake Munmorah, Budgewoi Lake and Tuggerah Lake.

The area around the Tuggerah Lakes was inhabited by the local Aborigines known as the Darkinjung people prior to European discovery in 1796. The lake system was discovered by the first Governor of Tasmania, Colonel David Collins, who had arrived on the First Fleet. They were found during the search for an escaped convict, Molly Morgan, who was thought to be living with the Aborigines to the north of the Hawkesbury River.

The wetland system consists of three interconnected coastal lagoons: Lake Munmorah, Budgewoi Lake and Tuggerah Lake. The three lakes cover 77 square kilometres (29.7 sq mi) and have a perimeter of 105 kilometres (65 mi). The largest of the lakes is Tuggerah Lake at 54 square kilometres (20.8 sq mi). All three lakes are shallow, with average depths of less than two metres (6.5 feet).

There is only limited movement of water between the lakes and sea through a narrow channel at The Entrance, and hence tides in the main body of the lakes are negligible. On occasions, this channel has slowly silted up with sand and the lakes have been completely cut off from the Pacific Ocean until a large flood scours out the channel again. It has been suggested that there was once a second entrance on the Budgewoi Peninsula, and although there is little evidence of this being the case since European settlement, occasionally waves do wash over the dunes into Budgewoi Lake during spring tides.

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