Lake Tuggeranong
artificial lake located in the Tuggeranong district of Canberra, within the Australian Capital Territory
Lake Tuggeranong is a reservoir formed by the Tuggeranong Dam, an earth-fill embankment dam across the Tuggeranong Creek, in the Tuggeranong district of Canberra, within the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The artificial lake is situated adjacent to the Tuggeranong Town Centre, and is bounded by the suburbs of Bonython in the south-east and Kambah in the north-west.
Overview
Lake Tuggeranong was created by the construction of a dam in 1987 coinciding with urban development in the district. In addition to Tuggeranong Creek, the reservoir is sourced by stormwater discharge from urban and rural areas and was built as a sediment trap for soil and debris, and to improve the quality of the water flowing into the Murrumbidgee River.
Completed in 1988 by Leighton Contrcators, the earth-filled dam wall is 20 metres (66 ft) high and 640 metres (2,100 ft) long. The impounded reservoir, Lake Tuggeranong, has a maximum capacity of 1,800 megalitres (1,500 acre⋅ft) when full and covers an area of 60 hectares (150 acres). The uncontrolled spillway has the flow capacity of 990 cubic metres per second (35,000 cu ft/s). The Isabella Pond is located upstream of the dam wall.
The water quality of Lake Tuggeranong is monitored by health and environmental agencies, and is subject to health hazards such as toxic blue-green algal blooms or high faecal bacteria counts, given the urban and rural runoff of the lake source.
The lake is a popular recreational site.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Lake Tuggeranong” as artificial lake located in the Tuggeranong district of Canberra, within the Australian Capital Territory. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as artificial lake located in the Tuggeranong district of Canberra, within the Australian Capital Territory. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q137788. Authority coordinates are -35.408, 149.067. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1987 and 1988.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Lake Tuggeranong”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Lake Tuggeranong primary sources, Lake Tuggeranong archive and Lake research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lake Tuggeranong”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Lake Tuggeranong” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.