I love a sunburnt country a land of sweeping plains, of the rugged mountain otways and its ever drying empty plains
Change ( the lake drying out )may be threatening, but it is sometimes stimulating- like having a chance to see lake Colac in a new light. To understand its very thin and precariuos nature.
Lots of people have lots of ideas about how to live better with nature, but all ideas have to fit with its tough, real limits and risks . By recognising these limits ( we hope to do more here ) we can infact make better use of the resources at our doorstep .
WE CAN DO SOME THINGS, BUT OTHERS JUST WON'T WORK lets discuss it here - your questions too !
Bare surfaces The fairy grass may be a fire issue ( news yesterday) but the dust from a bare surface could be expected to create major impact over the next few months , so something other than widespread burning must be considered.
Excavation . Clearly the cost of general deepening is prohibitive ( moving one metre of one hectare to the adjacent hectare - let alone 100 meters away would cost about $20000). Also, wave action , without properly creating low slope floors would soon fill any holes, as it does now .
Planned excavation using the natural principles of lake and beach formation could however create deeper areas , more effective beaches , fish habitat and lake function.
If we were to maintain a water level within much tighter limits, the restablishment of beaches and deeper areas near shore could be considered.
How do we do this at reasonable cost?---
We double the catchment area! and how do we do that ? Create a part of the lake area thats much less than half its present extent- get the govt to build a bypass!!!!
