Lake Moondarra

About 16 km north of Mt Isa city is Lake Moondarra, built in the 1950's out of necessity for a reliable water supply for the growing town and mine. The location was chosen,and construction was started in 1956 on the dam on the Leichhardt River. The dam was completed in 1958 by Thiess Bros at a cost of 1.7 million pounds.

 

 

The lake is the prime recreational area for Mt Isa and surrounds, it hosts the annual Lake Moondarra Fishing Classic on the last weekend of October where a specially tagged Barramundi can win you $50,000 if you can catch it.

 

In the 1960's the lake even had a sandy beach courtesy of MIM trucking in thousands of tonnes of sand, they also had a Surf Life Saving Club. 

 

The lake is stocked every year with Barramundi fingerlings, also making the lake home are Sooty Grunter, Long Tom, Sleepy Cod and Saratoga. Boating, skiing,swimming and fishing are the most popular activities on the lake, unfortunately camping is not permitted and the gates are locked at night as well.

 

There are plenty of picnic shelters and bar b que's around the lake to take advantage of as well as scenic spots to take photo's.

 

The Lakes name came from a competition held to find a name and Moondarra was selected as it is an aboriginal word meaning "plenty of rain and thunder". Moondarra covers an area of 2375 hectares and holds 106000 ML of  water at an average depth of 6 metres.

 

Warrina park is a short drive from the lake and is a real good spot to take a break. Such a shame you can't camp on these lush grounds.

 There are picnic shelters  BBQ's and toilets here, it just looks so nice, trouble is so do the peacocks, there is about a dozen living here.

Peacocks!!!!

I can just see our camper trailer set up here.

 

Well thats our look around Lake Moondarra I hope you enjoyed it.

Joanne and I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous and Happy New Year. Cheers.