You wouldn't believe it I visited a cache site some weeks back and found a cache called the best view which is a new Biodiversity hill listing all the vegetation and fauna communities around Dubbo, something that interests me. Whilst at the site there were two new directional signs newly erected on the hill top. Many of the locations they listed I had been two many times whilst caching in the area, Goonoo SF, Goobang NP, Beni SF, Coolah Top NP etc etc. Whilst reading through these I found mention of a "Perched Lake" some 35 odd kilometers to the North of Dubbo. Interestingly this I had not been to.
Over the following weekend I asked many people about this "perched lake". As a geomorphologist myself features like this are quite fascinating. Nobody knew anything about it, cachers, locals, naturalists, historians. In fact even the name seemed lost to history and yet it got mention on this new signage.
A perched lake can only be formed one of four ways.
* man made - anthropological
* glacial action - hydrological/mechanical
* impact site - astrological
* paleo-oxbow lake (old billabong) - geomorphological.
So when I asked the 4WD Club guru and fellow cacher GeoNads he had heard of it and even gave it a name but had never been to it. "Old Harbour Lagoon". He also mentioned that it might be a meteorite crater. Excitement was building now. So last Friday after exploiting all my contacts I gave the council a call. Seeking the guru herself, Kerry Palmer I actually got the guy who put in the Bio gardens sign, Lynton Auld. He also named it and gave directions but had no knowledge of if it was a crater site.
So, last Saturday afternoon we set off to explore this unknown site everybody had forgotten. With some wrong turns we stopped and asked a local the way. He knew of it and where it was and event thought it was literally 5k's from his drive way he had never visited the site. He also said it was supposedly a meteorite crater. Now I was very excited. This was the second person to rumour that this was an impact site.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=-32.0943 ... =0&src=ggl
Dubbo can be seen at the bottom of the page and the crater can be clearly seen at the top almost due north.
Old Harbour Lagoon is infact an impact site with the nature reserve list as being 130 - 140ha depending on who you ask and where you read. As far as craters go it's a baby but it would have made a fair bang when it did occur. The centre is dead flat with a rim clearly noticeable. A propert owner grazes the centre with a North / South fence through the centre. The reserve cover the Eastern Side and is easily accessible through a couple of gates. There is a significant amount of non-indigenous history also on the site as well with it being a site for charcoal burners.
It has a 5m rim around the outer edge with trees lining the rim. The centre is grass filled and some dead trees scatter mostly on the eastern half. It is almost a perfect circle and although it is described as a lagoon there is no water within unsurprisingly.
As I get time I'll post some pictures and even find out a bit more from the property owner, datings, more history and just how it has become lost in the history books. I was amazed that so few people know about it and how easily I have scoured this land for the last 4 years with Mix and neither of us found it before now.
Goes to show there are still some great sites available without filling our parks with drive bys.
Bronze
Nice write-up....
