Lake Bathurst (Aboriginal: Bundong) is a shallow lake located 27 km south-east of Goulburn, New South Wales in Australia. It is also the name of a nearby locality in the Goulburn Mulwaree Council.

Features and location

The surface area of the lake can vary from 2 km2 up to 10 km2, depending on the inflow and evaporation rates. The lake was named by surveyor James Meehan in honour of Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and the nearby village was named after the lake.

Birds

The lake is an important site for Australasian shovellers. A 19 km2 area of the lake and its immediate surrounds has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it regularly supports significant numbers of near threatened blue-billed ducks and over 1% of the world population of Australasian shovellers. It is an important drought refuge, sometimes supporting over 1% of the world populations of freckled ducks, black swans, chestnut teals and sharp-tailed sandpipers.

Locality

Lake Bathurst is also the name of a very small village, located on the Goulburn-Braidwood Road, 3 km west of the lake. At the, the Lake Bathurst area had a population of 228.

Lake Bathurst station

Lake Bathurst had a railway station (-35.015°N, 149.6481°W) on the Bombala railway line from 1884 to 1975.

Inveralochy station

Another station (-34.9655°N, 149.6476°W) was established under the name of Inveralochy in the northern part of the locality in 1890 and was closed in 1974.

Military history

During World War II, Lake Bathurst was the location of RAAF No.16 Inland Aircraft Fuel Depot (IAFD), completed in 1942 and closed on 29 August 1944. Usually consisting of 4 tanks, 31 fuel depots were built across Australia for the storage and supply of aircraft fuel for the RAAF and the US Army Air Forces at a total cost of £900,000 ($1,800,000).