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CSIRO Confirms Lake St Clair as Australia’s Deepest Lake at 163 Metres

An eight-day multibeam-sonar and LIDAR survey produced a high-resolution 3D map that CSIRO will release to support research and safer navigation.

Overview

  • New mapping settles decades of speculation by superseding 19th-century lead-line and a 1965 single-beam survey that likely overstated depths.
  • The deepest point was pinpointed near the western shore on a bend about 4 kilometres north of the visitor centre.
  • The 3D dataset resolves objects down to roughly 50 centimetres and reveals underwater cliffs, deep ravines, towering rock formations and fallen trees.
  • Survey teams used the twin-hulled RV South Cape for deep-water passes and the 2‑metre Otter remotely operated vessel to map shallow and nearshore areas.
  • Researchers worked through snow, big swells and blustery winds during the mapping and reported no evidence of a rumored lake monster.