Lake Albert (South Australia) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lake Albert |
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Lake Albert seen from Meningie
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Location | South Australia |
Coordinates | 35°38′S 139°17′E / 35.633°S 139.283°E |
Native name | Yarli (Ngarrindjeri) |
Etymology | Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
Part of | Murray–Darling basin |
Basin countries | Australia |
Managing agency | Department of Environment and Water |
Designation | Ramsar/DIWA wetlands (part) |
Surface area | 168 square kilometres (65 sq mi) |
Islands | Bascombe Island |
Settlements | Meningie, Narrung |
Official name: The Coorong, Lake Alexandrina & Albert Wetland | |
Designated: | 1 November 1985 |
Reference #: | 321 |
Lake Albert, also known by its Ngarrindjeri name, Yarli, is a notionally fresh water lake near the mouth of the Murray River in South Australia. It is filled by water flowing in from the larger Lake Alexandrina at its mouth near Narrung. It is separated on the south by the Narrung Peninsula from the salt-water Coorong. The only major town on the lake is Meningie. Lakes Alexandrina and Albert are together known as the Lower Lakes.
Contents
Naming of lake and associated features
The lake was named after Prince Albert, the Consort of Queen Victoria, by the Governor, George Gawler.
The full extent of Lake Albert was gazetted as a ‘rural locality’ along with Lake Alexandrina in May 2014. The boundary of the locality of ‘Lake Albert’ with the rural locality of Lake Alexandrina occurs at the alignment of Poltalloch Road within the locality of Poltalloch on the northern side of the Albert Channel which connects both lakes.
Tourism
Lake Albert is visited regularly by people traveling to and from Melbourne, the Limestone Coast, the Coorong National Park, Tailem Bend, Murray Bridge, and Adelaide. Visitors enjoy fishing, camping, bushwalking, 4WD tracks, bird watching, water sports, and many land-based sporting clubs such as lawn bowls, cricket, football, netball, tennis, croquet, shooting, motorcycling, karate, pony riding, and golf in the Township of Meningie.
Flora and fauna
Birds
Lake Albert supports critically endangered orange-bellied parrots, endangered Australasian bitterns, vulnerable fairy terns, as well as over 1% of the world populations of Cape Barren geese, Australian shelducks, great cormorants and sharp-tailed sandpipers.
Protected area status
Australian government
Lake Albert is part of the wetland complex known as the Coorong and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert Wetland which is listed as a Ramsar site. The wetland is also appears in the non-statutory list known as A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia.
Non-statutory arrangements
Lake Albert is included within the boundary of the Lakes Alexandrina and Albert Important Bird Area which is an area considered by BirdLife International to be a place of ‘international significance for the conservation of birds and other biodiversity.’
See also
In Spanish: Lago Alberto (Australia del Sur) para niños