Lake Hume’s summer charm has lured thousands of tourists to its shores once again despite lower dam levels compared to this time last year.
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Hume Dam has been teetering around 40 per cent this week and is 18 per cent lower than last summer.
Bowna’s Great Aussie Holiday Park manager Melanie Diffey said the water levels had not deterred campers, as her park had been packed to capacity since Sunday.
“We've got a private boat ramp, so people can still put their boat in,” she said.
“I think with the water it hasn't affected us because we have a lot of activities.”
The park offers archery, movie nights and animal feeding with a stable of alpacas, deer, a miniature horse and other animals.
Mrs Diffey, who has operated four summers at the park, said the majority of guests were regulars with many from Albury and Wagga as well as Melbourne.
“We have 400 guests at the moment … and a full park until January 10.”
“Some people have Christmas here and a lot of people come the day after.”
Water was still the main drawcard for some tourists on Thursday.
At Boathaven there was a flotilla of jet-skis, swimmers, boats and tubers.
Gary Cook said he escaped from the Mornington Peninsula with his family-of-four to avoid the Melbourne “city slickers” who clogged up his hometown in summer.
“We only came up on Wednesday, we just got back from a trip around Australia so (driving) the car to Albury was no worries,” he said.
“We’ve been once before with our friends, our kids are all the same age, so they have fun in the water.”
Mr Cook said his daughter Tayla, 11, and friend Mackenzie Kiezenberg, 9, went for a ski lesson as soon as they arrived at the lake.
Mackenzie, from Mount Martha, said it was her first time on two skis with a rope and it had been quite hard.
Further along the shore, a contingent of four families from Warrandyte and North Ringwood set up a mobile marine base.
The Leonard, Archer, Jay and Spiteri families number 23 in parents and children.
Anita Leonard said she loved everything about the spot her family had been coming to for eight years.
“I’m from the UK originally where we have nothing like this,” she said.
Mrs Leonard said they weren’t spending much since the children were so occupied on the water.
