Another misconception down the drain! Lake Argyle is not the largest patch of dammed water in the country.....that honour belongs to the Lake Gordon in Tassie, the scene of all that protest trouble so many years ago.
But despite coming in second (by not too much) Lake Argyle is nevertheless an vast storage. Seen here from space, (thanks to Wikipedia) you can gain some sense of its spread throughout the rocky red hills and valleys it has inundated, and of the relatively harsh nature of the land in which it lies. The Lake Argyle Resort is situated right at the top end of the lake where it again becomes the Ord River.
As mentioned previously, tours on the lake are a real feature of any stay at the resort. Early birds can enjoy their breakfast on the water. Others prefer to wait until lunchtime to venture out, whilst at the other end of each day, a sunset cruise with drinks and nibbles is on offer. On the strong recommendations of many, this was our choice.
But just before we flit off on this Lake Argyle jolly, a few facts. Shortly after our arrival we drove up to the lookout which provided us with spectacular views. The 'top dam' as it is known is an impressive construction by any standard.
Its wall rises 98 metres above its foundations and extends for 335 metres across the ravine in which it was built.
And it is unusual in that there has been no cement used to create the massive wall. As this plaque at the lookout shows, the core of the dam wall is reactive clay with rock fill, a lot of rock, (blasted out of the nearby hills) sheeting both sides of it.
All this was not easily achieved. Apart from the sheer size of the construction, the huge volumes of water which flow down the Ord River during each wet season meant that work could only proceed during the dry. As the dam wall rose, the top had to be capped with rock each year (and then removed again) to prevent the flow of the flood sweeping away all that had been done to date, a significant engineering feat in itself. Three years after the first workers moved in the dam was completed. It was formally opened in June 1972.
The need for power generation saw another 6 metres added to the top of the wall in 1996. This almost doubled the volume of the lake but more importantly raised the level sufficiently to allow the pressure of water flowing from the upstream tower through huge pipes through the wall to drive the hydro turbines
in the power station on the downstream side of the dam
where the crystal clear waters of Lake Argyle pour out into the Ord River channel and eventually feed into Lake Kununurra (all of which we had seen before during our Ord River cruise)
Another unusual feature of this dam is the fact that there is no overflow, even during the wettest year. A special gap cut through the nearby hills some eight kilometres from the dam, allows excessive water to flow away down the gully of a nearby creek.
This top dam is the most efficient in the country in terms of the ratio of the size of the wall to the amount of water stored....and there is a lot of water stored. Lake Argyle normally holds 10,763 giglitres of water which probably means very little to most of you. This amount would fill Sydney Harbour nearly twenty times over. During periods of high flood, this volume can double and then the area of the lake extends over 2,000 square kilometres. These are mind-numbing figures about which I'll say no more.
The vantage point of the dam lookout allowed us to not only look across the wall itself, but by panning to the left, we could see down to the area where we would later embark on our cruise boat and launch my kayak.
So let's be done with statistics, impressive as they are, and get on the water. We went aboard our very slick cruise boat at about 1530 hours together with thirty or so other 'lake cruisers'.
The first of a number of stops was at the hydro inlet tower where we were provided with information about the whole set up here. For Liz and me this was something of a repeat of what we had learnt on the Ord River trip, but it was good to have this new perspective. At times of full flood, the water rises to just below the top of this tower before the spillway roars into life.
Lake Argyle has many relatively narrow arms where the water has flooded old gullies between the hilltops, but once we were through this channel
broader expanses of water opened to our view.
As could be expected, the cruise had a focus on local wildlife.....a couple of stops to gaze on Lake Argyle 'freshies'
was on our agenda. With the abundant food available to them, the crocodiles here in the lake are generally big. These were certainly larger than those we had seen on the Ord River.
At this end of the lake bays and inlets abound. This is not the case in the centre, where, at certain points, the lake is so wide that it can be difficult to see land in any direction (or so we were told).
Striking rock formations became an almost constant sight as we continued on our cruise.
Our next engagement with the local fauna was a stop for fish feeding, which to be honest, I found all a bit ho hum, but the ecologist guide on board did take this opportunity to provide a deal of information about the numbers and types of fish to be found here.
In several places during our cruise we had to negotiate a course through groups of small islands, which are, of course the tops of the many hills the lake covered.
The shapes of the hills rising above the water changed continually. Here they were bulky and rounded,
whilst here the rocks were a series of upright blocks.
But despite coming in second (by not too much) Lake Argyle is nevertheless an vast storage. Seen here from space, (thanks to Wikipedia) you can gain some sense of its spread throughout the rocky red hills and valleys it has inundated, and of the relatively harsh nature of the land in which it lies. The Lake Argyle Resort is situated right at the top end of the lake where it again becomes the Ord River.
As mentioned previously, tours on the lake are a real feature of any stay at the resort. Early birds can enjoy their breakfast on the water. Others prefer to wait until lunchtime to venture out, whilst at the other end of each day, a sunset cruise with drinks and nibbles is on offer. On the strong recommendations of many, this was our choice.
But just before we flit off on this Lake Argyle jolly, a few facts. Shortly after our arrival we drove up to the lookout which provided us with spectacular views. The 'top dam' as it is known is an impressive construction by any standard.
Its wall rises 98 metres above its foundations and extends for 335 metres across the ravine in which it was built.
And it is unusual in that there has been no cement used to create the massive wall. As this plaque at the lookout shows, the core of the dam wall is reactive clay with rock fill, a lot of rock, (blasted out of the nearby hills) sheeting both sides of it.
All this was not easily achieved. Apart from the sheer size of the construction, the huge volumes of water which flow down the Ord River during each wet season meant that work could only proceed during the dry. As the dam wall rose, the top had to be capped with rock each year (and then removed again) to prevent the flow of the flood sweeping away all that had been done to date, a significant engineering feat in itself. Three years after the first workers moved in the dam was completed. It was formally opened in June 1972.
The need for power generation saw another 6 metres added to the top of the wall in 1996. This almost doubled the volume of the lake but more importantly raised the level sufficiently to allow the pressure of water flowing from the upstream tower through huge pipes through the wall to drive the hydro turbines
in the power station on the downstream side of the dam
where the crystal clear waters of Lake Argyle pour out into the Ord River channel and eventually feed into Lake Kununurra (all of which we had seen before during our Ord River cruise)
Another unusual feature of this dam is the fact that there is no overflow, even during the wettest year. A special gap cut through the nearby hills some eight kilometres from the dam, allows excessive water to flow away down the gully of a nearby creek.
This top dam is the most efficient in the country in terms of the ratio of the size of the wall to the amount of water stored....and there is a lot of water stored. Lake Argyle normally holds 10,763 giglitres of water which probably means very little to most of you. This amount would fill Sydney Harbour nearly twenty times over. During periods of high flood, this volume can double and then the area of the lake extends over 2,000 square kilometres. These are mind-numbing figures about which I'll say no more.
The vantage point of the dam lookout allowed us to not only look across the wall itself, but by panning to the left, we could see down to the area where we would later embark on our cruise boat and launch my kayak.
So let's be done with statistics, impressive as they are, and get on the water. We went aboard our very slick cruise boat at about 1530 hours together with thirty or so other 'lake cruisers'.
The first of a number of stops was at the hydro inlet tower where we were provided with information about the whole set up here. For Liz and me this was something of a repeat of what we had learnt on the Ord River trip, but it was good to have this new perspective. At times of full flood, the water rises to just below the top of this tower before the spillway roars into life.
Lake Argyle has many relatively narrow arms where the water has flooded old gullies between the hilltops, but once we were through this channel
broader expanses of water opened to our view.
As could be expected, the cruise had a focus on local wildlife.....a couple of stops to gaze on Lake Argyle 'freshies'
was on our agenda. With the abundant food available to them, the crocodiles here in the lake are generally big. These were certainly larger than those we had seen on the Ord River.
At this end of the lake bays and inlets abound. This is not the case in the centre, where, at certain points, the lake is so wide that it can be difficult to see land in any direction (or so we were told).
Striking rock formations became an almost constant sight as we continued on our cruise.
Our next engagement with the local fauna was a stop for fish feeding, which to be honest, I found all a bit ho hum, but the ecologist guide on board did take this opportunity to provide a deal of information about the numbers and types of fish to be found here.
In several places during our cruise we had to negotiate a course through groups of small islands, which are, of course the tops of the many hills the lake covered.
The shapes of the hills rising above the water changed continually. Here they were bulky and rounded,
whilst here the rocks were a series of upright blocks.
In other places, prominent rocky knobs stood proud against the sky. The vista was a moving feast of different formations.
A stop to feed a small group of well trained local wallabies delighted many of the foreign tourists aboard, 
but by now I was becoming more interested in the operations of the boat (which was skippered by a very competent young lady)
Sunset was nigh. The hills were beginning to glow.
and it was shortly after this that we hove to for the promised drinks and nibbles. With the numbers on board I was interested to see how this would be done.
The cruise blurb offers those who are so inclined the opportunity to take a sunset swim in the lake whilst nibbling and slurping. Many did so supported by their obligatory floatation noodles.
How on earth would they be provided with their drinks and nibbles??? A floating bar, of course, an ingenious little device. This metal tray with its curved arms fitted neatly over a rescue buoy which was then lowered over the stern to float amongst those splashing below.
Ladies and Gentlemen, drinks are served.'
Neither Liz nor I felt a pressing need to be wet on both the inside and outside at the same time. Frankly, this all seemed a bit silly. We fared much better by remaining on board where resupply was much easier and we could chat without having to make sure we did not inadvertently dilute our drinks or soak our cheese and biscuits with the waters of the lake.
Within half an hour or so those 'noodling' were recalled on board as the sun sank below the line of distant hills.
It was time to make our way back to Bamboo Cove where we disembarked in the pastel afterglow of sunset and under the rising moon. For us this had been a pleasant jaunt, but I must say that much of what would have been particularly interesting was a repeat of what we had previously been told on our Ord River jaunt. This did take away from our enjoyment somewhat.
I was not quite finished with the waters of Lake Argyle. I had promised myself a paddle, so it was back down to the launching area and off with the kayak.
After a few adjustments
it was time to hit the water.
I had a great hour and a half roaming around the still waters of Bamboo Cove
before venturing somewhat further afield out near the dam wall, where the rising south-easterly wind did make things a little tricky for a while.
But all went well. As I paddled back to shore I was more than happy with the fact that I had had some good exercise and another 'bucket list' item had been ticked off. Now for the Katherine Gorge.....well in a week or so at least!
Our sojourn at The Lake Argyle Resort was at an end (as is my patience with this wretched blog which, as you will have noted for the last half, has again developed a mind of its own as far a justification is concerned). It was time to get busy again on the road. We were about to leave Western Australia after some twenty months in that State and again venture into the Northern Territory and beyond to our wintering home in Far North Queensland.
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