But it appears that I’ve been trumped. This week,
prolific Canberra author Graeme Barrow published
the aptly titled ‘Magnificent’ Lake George: The
Biography. Barrow has done a far better job than I
could ever have dreamed of and his engaging and
colourfully illustrated expose on the lake is a must for
anyone who has even a passing interest in its natural,
cultural or social history. It is a thoroughly
researched, comprehensive history of the lake and is
chock-full of more interesting anecdotes about the
enigmatic lake than could fit into a dozen shoeboxes.
Here are my top 10.

1. CONVICT CANAL
Under part of the old highway at the Collector end of
the lake is a curious convict-built canal constructed in
the mid-1830s. According to one story, the canal, the
brainchild of early landholder Terence Aubrey
Murray, was built to channel fresh water from Lake
George into the stagnant swamp on his property
Ajamatong, north of the lake, known as Murrays
Lagoon.
Murray’s men hacked furiously away, all by hand,
cutting the 14-foot deep, 12-foot wide at the top and
150-foot long canal (four by three by 45 metres)
through what was an ancient river terrace. The lower
part of the canal was faced with stone blocks cut by
convicts, the ‘‘solid lining built to last for centuries’’.
Unfortunately for Murray and his merry gang of
labourers, the canal proved to be a futile exercise
because of the failure to recognise that the lagoon
level was in fact several feet higher than the lake’s,
not lower. According to one version of the story,
when the canal was completed water from the swamp
flowed into the lake instead of in the reverse direction.

2. FISH FRENZY
At various stages since European settlement, the lake
has been stocked with fish. For example, in 1953,
20,000 rainbow and brown trout were released into
the lake. But the lake’s most unusual fishy tale isn’t
about live fish, rather dead ones, and lots of them.
In December 1962, many of ‘‘the lake’s millions of
carp gulped frantically at the surface for a few
minutes, then rolled over dead’’. They had diseased
and bleeding gills and their flesh was riddled with
worms. These deaths led to bizarre rumours about the
cause, the favourite being the dumping of radioactive
waste into the lake. Another was the poisoning of the
lake by gases from an extinct volcano. A third, given
the accolade of ‘‘perhaps the most imaginative’’, had
the carp killed by a fireball striking the lake’s surface,
if a train driver and a fireman could be believed.

3. GRASSHOPPER PONG
Fish aren’t the only creatures to have caused a stench
near the lake’s shores. In 1898, the whiff from dead
grasshoppers that were piled over half a metre high
on the western shore of the lake was apparently so
bad that thirsty stock refused to go anywhere near the
water to drink.

4. GRASS TREE FOREST
During work to upgrade the Federal Highway in
1995, 160 grass trees (Xanthorrhoea australis), some
reputed to be up to 1000 years old, were transplanted
to a new site in a paddock just south of the
Weereewaa Lookout (on the Federal Highway at
Gearys Gap). The trees have done well in their new
home but unfortunately it is not easy to enter the
fenced site and there is no noticeboard explaining
how this curious plantation came into being.

5. HERE COMES THE MAN IN BLACK
Who was the man dressed in black and wearing a top
hat often seen along the western shores of Lake
George in the 1930s? The Collector Ghost, of course.
On one occasion a ‘‘sober’’ barrister swerved to avoid
this spectre, but hit him. The barrister stopped, but
could not find a body or a dent in his car. Later in the
Collector Pub, the Bushranger Hotel (where else?), he
was told he had seen the Collector Ghost.

6. A SWINGING BRIDGE
While on the subject of bushrangers, when Ben Hall,
Johnny Gilbert and another of their gang lay siege to
his home – Winderadeen on the northern edge of the

lake – Thomas Aubrey Murray stuffed his windows
with mattresses in the hope that they would absorb
bullets. The privately owned homestead also boasts a
suspension bridge over Collector Creek – I wonder if
the bushrangers used it as a quick getaway.

7. PLEASURE CRAFT
It might be hard to believe, especially during the
lake’s recent prolonged dry period, but a number of
pleasure craft including paddle steamers once plied
the lake’s waters taking tourists for scenic cruises.
An advertisement in September 1884 extolling the
virtues of Douglas House, an historic ex-guesthouse
on the lake’s western shore, boasted that it had 20
large and airy rooms and an unsurpassed view of
Lake George, across which a grand little steamer, the
Pioneer, carried visitors.
But not all pleasure craft were steam-powered.
Between taking weather recordings, William Glover,
the ‘‘Meteorological Observer’’ stationed at the lake,
in the late 1800s hand-crafted a six-metre cedar
yacht fitted with a centreboard, jib and mainsail. At
the regatta of November 1890, Glover’s yacht beat all
other boats by 15 minutes over a 10-kilometre
course.

8. TURRETED STONE MARKER
The eastern side of Lake George is home to an
important trigonometrical baseline that acts as a
reference point from which all surveys in NSW
originate. Yes – the whole state! The baseline,
completed in 1874 and the last of four to be
positioned at or near the lake, is marked by a tall
stone pillar at the baseline’s northern end and a
smaller cairn in the south, the two landmarks being
almost 9 kilometres apart in a direct line.

9. GIANT SHEEP AND COLOSSAL COWS
Hot summer days in February 1930 resulted in
mirages on the parched lake bed. Apparently sheep
several kilometres away from Gearys Gap looked as
big as camels. In 1839, cattle on the lake bed were
reported to appear to be the size of huge trees – again
the effect of a mirage.

10. CHANGE OF NAME
In the book, Graeme Barrow controversially calls for
the name of the lake to revert to its traditional name.
Charles Throsby was the first person to write down
the Aboriginal name for the lake, recording it as
‘‘Wee,,ree,waa,,’’ in a letter to Macquarie on August
25, 1820, as if spelling it phonetically. ‘‘Macquarie
chose to disregard Weereewaa, which, however it is
spelt, is a distinctive name, soft at times and musical,
and instead named the lake after a boorish English
king, George IV,’’ Barrow laments.
‘‘George should be dumped and its traditional name
of Weereewaa restored, a beautiful name matching a
lovely expanse of water (when the lake is full, that
is),’’ argues Barrow, who cites the Ayers Rock change
to Uluru as a precedent.

Fact File: ‘Magnificent’ Lake George: The Biography
(RRP: $30) is published by Dagraja Press and is
available in all good book stores or by contacting
author Graeme Barrow:
granorab@grapevine.com.au