Residents of riverside village Oura have welcomed an idea to create a man-made lake at North Wagga.
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The decades-old concept was recently resurrected by Leigh Campbell, who said building a North Wagga Lake could improve flood protection for the suburb and provide a unique tourist attraction.
Daily Advertiser readers backed the idea, with almost 92 per cent of people polled giving it the thumbs up.
Oura Progress Association president Mick Baker said while he hadn’t polled the village, he personally thought it was a great idea that would have benefits upstream as well.
“I know this was floated a couple of decades ago, but I think it’s got merit, there’s certainly some practical thought behind it,” Mr Baker said. “We’d like to see some sort of flood protection for Oura (and) what Leigh put forward will have better outcomes for the length of the river.”
Put simply, a North Wagga Lake idea would see an existing large waterhole near the Olympic Highway greatly expanded to create a man-made lake on ratepayer-owned land. The lake could be filled and emptied easily because of its proximity to the river, allowing it to be used as a tourist attraction but also a reservoir if flood risks increased. The excavated soil could then be used to build new levee banks or enhance existing ones at North Wagga, giving it a similar level of protection to the rest of the city.
“This would fix an immense amount of problems, you spend some money and you get one-off fix for them all,” Mr Campbell told The DA.
North Wagga resident Maree Watt said it was a great idea that should have been implemented years ago.
”I reckon it’s an absolutely fantastic idea, I wish they’d done it years ago,” she said. “It’s a win-win, I don’t get why council has never seen that. Certainly it would be a win for everybody, but I think council totally ignores North Wagga and they’ve made it clear they don’t want to do anything, just one study after another.”
”The system would allow inflow and outflow around the problem areas,” Mr Baker said. “If they divert a lot of flow through something like a lake I can see it’s got potential without impacting livelihoods and homes. I’d encourage people to go to the meeting at the (Wagga) RSL, I’m all for a further investigation.”
A public meeting to discuss the proposal will be held at 7pm on May 30 at Wagga RSL Club.
Stephen Mudd
Stephen Mudd is a journalist for Fairfax Media west of the great divide. He loves music, dogs and travel.
Stephen Mudd is a journalist for Fairfax Media west of the great divide. He loves music, dogs and travel.
