Lake Eucumbene

The first blast to start construction of Lake Eucumbene was fired on 17 October 1949. It was the start of the Snowy Hydro Scheme; the first and biggest of the lakes to be developed. Construction continued until 1958 when the massive wall was completed during May. The wall is an earth fill wall that is 116.1m high and 579.1m long. The lake itself has a capacity of 4,798,400 cubic metres of water or about nine times the water in Sydney Harbour. Lake Eucumbene is so big that it is the largest lake in eastern Australia. The shoreline of the lake spans 240km.

The lake is linked to and fed through a tunnel from Lake Tantangara. The tunnel surfaces at Providence Portal (see right).

Lake Eucumbene is stocked with Brown and Rainbow Trout as well as Salmon. It also contains brook and native trout varieties. For the current fishing rules for Lake Eucumbene please follow the follwiing link to the NSW Fisheries site.

Each year there is a Trout Festival during the first week of November. Prizes are awarded for entering the competition as well as trolling, spinning, bait fishing, fly fishing and juniors. There are prizes for different fish categories as well as other daily prizes.

The map below may be viewed also as a high resolution pdf file. Make sure that you have Adobe Acrobat installed if you would like to view this map.

The following satelite image was sourced from the NSW Department of Lands.

A new ramp and parking area has been constructed at Old Adaminaby to accomodate for the lower lake lavels due to the prolonged drought. fishing is reported to still be good, however, caution should be taken when navigating between submerged trees.

The new boat ramp at Old Adaminaby (this used to be Denison Street of the old town).

Parking for cars and trailors at the new Boat ramp at Old Adaminaby.