Opening of the Sand Bar at Lake Tyers Beach

The weather has quietened down somewhat from 3-4 months ago but there is still some winter left, so we are not quite into spring/summer days just yet.  However the lake is nearly closed over with on the barest of channels working at the moment.  There should be plenty of prawn larvae drifted into the lake by now, so we should be guaranteed prawning summers for the next few years.
For some dramatic photos of what levels the lake can reach also see HowDeep.
2012, 9th of October
Nearly closed over, only high tides are washing into the lake, the channel is just a shallow trickle most of the time.

2012, 6th of June
Wednesday morning (below) it has truly opened and water moving out to sea,

Tuesday Lunch time (below), not sure if this will be a full opening or not but here are some photos to give you the atmosphere of the process.

A broad shallow opening, or should it be called a bridged sandbar as the lake is just not dropping quick enough.  Maybe the tides are not low enough to create a big channel cutting rush?

Girls enjoying a cold day's sightseeing in the Tavern car park.

Is there are mad man loose out there that I can see?

Phew!!! Thanks goodness - it is not a mad man, just Frank Flynn chasing the perfect shot, talk about keen???!!!!

Panorama Christmas/New Year at Lake Tyers 2011
(A full 360 taken and prepared by Nicholas Ward, click on it if you like to see the big 1.4Mb image )


Panorama - August 27 2011 the lake has opened again, but closed by Xmas.


Panorama - June 2011 and the Lake is still closed but much deeper.

Panorama - August 2009 and the Lake is closed.

However it has opened in recent times and, below is chronicled the few openings that I have witnessed (in reverse order chronologically).

December2008/January2009: This time the sand bar was breached artificially with shovels. The gap was made to the east of the last opening and was not that deep or long lasting as the lake was not that high when the breach was made.

Panorama  of the westerly man made entrance.

 
How did a couple of men dig though the sandbar?  Well the photograph below shows that during a storm in December 2008, the bar was low enough for storms to wash over into the lake. If the bar had been left alone it would have probably built up and the high water retained for quite a while, until it burst through naturally again.  Once a narrow channel had been dug that night, the small trickle became a deluge, and the bar was broken.  Apparently the people responsible were fined for this unauthorised interference.



Panorama of a naturally made breach
December 2007: Natural entrance shown below created by storms earlier at the middle of that year. Note the entrance is silting up with the easterly drift of sand along 90 Mile Beach. The entrance is nearly closed again.
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August 2007: The eastern side of the entrance is building up with sand wash from the 90 Mile Beach and generally prevailing westerly winds. 


Looking from the air after a few months (September,2007) it looked like this...


The entrance created shown below was at the height of the storms mid 2007.  The regional floods stopped traffic on the Princes Highway at many river locations, as the Tambo, Nicholson, Mitchell, Avon all flooded.  The most significant for traffic was the Mitchell River at Bairnsdale, being the last main road to open.


The huge force of this natural opening in June 2007 is evident as shown here with the breadth and  energy of the breach.  The lake was very tidal and huge quantities of sea water washed in and out on the tides for many months afterwards.  The fishing in the lake was quite depressed during this time.

However it is not recommended to be this close to the action!!! No matter how interesting!!!


Ariel Photos: This following picture is in the posession of Gus and Lorraine and have kindly allowed me to show a retouched copy of the original.  If you have the band width you may like to click on the photo and see if you house was built then.  Does anyone have an idea of the date of this photo?



Just to further whet your taste buds, here is an older aerial photograph of the early Lake Tyers Beach with some indication of the sand bar.  Bec and Daff have this as a kind of postcard, do you have anything you would like to share? Circa 1970's???  Any ideasof the date???  If you check it closely you can see the massive Norfolk Island Pine in the decking of the Tavern when it was much smaller.


Check out these aerial images of the Lake Entrance opening courtesy http://www.lesmp.vic.gov.au - very interesting indeed! Especially the 1944 photo.