Lake Argyle

In the tropical northeast of the Kimberley region the Ord River has been dammed by the 67m high Top Dam to form Lake Argyle, which has an area of 740 sq.km and stores water for the irrigation of 70,000ha of land during the dry season.

Plans for large-scale irrigation schemes were conceived after the Second World War, when great efforts were being made to develop and populate the empty tropical northern regions of Australia. The Top Dam, completed in 1971, created a reservoir nine times the size of Sydney Harbor, drowning whole valleys and turning the summits of hills into islands. The red slopes on the shores of the lake attract birds, lizards and marsupials.

From the outset the Ord River project had its critics,