Lake Euramoo (Ngimun) | |
---|---|
Location | Danbulla, Tablelands Region, Far North Queensland, Australia |
Coordinates | 17°09′33″S 145°37′44″E / 17.1591°S 145.629°E |
Type |
|
Primary inflows | no inflow channels |
Primary outflows | no outflow channels |
Catchment area | 4.4 ha (11 acres) |
Basin countries | Australia |
Average depth |
|
Surface elevation | 718 m (2,356 ft) |
Lake Euramoo (a.k.a. Ngimun & Nuta) is a shallow dumbbell-shaped volcanic crater lake (a maar) in Danbulla, Tablelands Region, Far North Queensland, Australia. [1] It was formed about 23,000 years ago [2] by two massive explosions from groundwater superheating.
The crater lake is known to Yidinji, within their oral history and mythology as Ngimun, [3] and known to neighbouring Ngdjon-jii as Nuta; [4] though formally gazetted by the Queensland Government as 'Lake Euramoo', [1] Euramo being the Dyirbal word for river (yuramu) [5]
The lake (Ngimun) falls within the current Danbulla National Park and State Forest, [6] on the Tertiary uplifted highlands of the Atherton Tableland, within the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, Australia.
Yidinji and Ngadjon-jii mythology explaining the origin of Ngimun plus two other companion crater lakes, Yidyam ( Lake Eacham) and Barany ( Lake Barrine), has been described as a plausible and surprisingly accurate oral account of volcanic eruptions or explosions in the area around 10,000 years ago.
It is said that two newly-initiated men broke a taboo and angered the rainbow serpent Yamany, major spirit of the area ... As a result 'the camping-place began to change, the earth under the camp roaring like thunder. The wind started to blow down, as if a cyclone were coming. The camping-place began to twist and crack. While this was happening there was in the sky a red cloud, of a hue never seen before. The people tried to run from side to side but were swallowed by a crack which opened in the ground'....
.. After telling the myth, in 1964, the storyteller remarked that when this happened the country round the lakes was 'not jungle - just open scrub'. In 1968, a dated pollen diagram from the organic sediments of Lake Euramoo [Ngimun] by Peter Kershaw (1970) showed, rather surprisingly, that the rain forest in that area is only about 7,600 years old. [7]
The vegetation surrounding Lake Euramoo (Ngimun) is a remnant of moist sub montane rainforest, surrounded by previously cleared land that, within the last 50 years, has been planted with endemic Hoop Pine ( Araucaria cunninghamii) and exotic conifers, or recolonised by the remnant rainforest species. [8]
Typical moist submontane rainforest species found near Lake Euramoo (Ngimun), within 100 m, include: [8]
Around the margin of Ngimun are identifiable 'zones' of aquatic plants which fluctuate with water depth and the seasons: [8]