Lake Tyers has finally broken through to Bass Strait, the receding waters a welcome relief to the towns it encountered.
Car parking adjacent to the Waterwheel Tavern was becoming increasingly inundated and causing safety concerns for motorists, while the boat ramp and walking tracks at Lake Tyers Beach and Nowa Nowa were essentially non-existent prior to the estuary breaking through overnight on Monday.
Last month President of the Nowa Nowa Community Development Group, Bernie Rossi, said the number one concern in the area was the hundreds of fully mature, native trees that had been sitting in water are now dead or dying. She said even the oldest residents of the area had not seen such a phenomenon and the trees had starting to fall into the lake or drop branches.
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The public is asked to be vigilant in and around the water with sandbanks unstable and extensive debris such as tree branches and limbs floating throughout the lake system.
Previously East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (EGCMA) undertook water quality monitoring last Friday in the upper reaches of Lake Tyers where the estuary was still highly stratified at approximate depths of 2.27m, which is close to the figure where natural breaches have occurred in the past.
Stratification is the separation of oxygenated freshwater from the deoxygenated saltwater towards the bottom of the lake.
EGCMA had planned to undertake further monitoring of the water quality and other conditions and yesterday prior to the water breaking through naturally.
The lake opened to Bass Straight back in November 2022 – the fourth time in a 15-month span. Prior to that it opened in July 2016.
