WANGANUI LAKE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28257, 20 April 1957, Page 15

WANGANUI LAKE

Underwater Club Makes Survey "The Press” Special Service

WELLINGTON, April 19.

A survey made of Virginia Lake, Wanganui, by members of the Hutt Valley Underwater Club has revealed that lake is not deep as some people believe, and also that there is at least’ one tortoise in it.

The survey was made with the full approval of the Wanganui City Council, which provided a punt for the club’s operations. The leader of the party of 10 men, two women, and a boy was Mr K. M. Gibbons, his chief assistant being Mr D. R. Prince. The others in the party were Mesdames J. Campbell, P. M. Bott, Messrs J. Campbell, O. Atkins, B. Parr, J. A. Alexander, R. Kum, Lincoln, B. Watson, N. F. Proebestel, and lan Bott.

Virginia Lake, which is the city’s auxiliary water supply, is situated on St. John’s Hill area. It is more than a mile in circumference, but only about 150 yards wide. The underwater club undertook to investigate several matters for the Wanganui City Engineer. One was to discover the lake’s source of water.

The swimmers discovered that the lake’s vralls are steep and matted with weed, making it highly dangerous, because of the possibility of entanglement in the strong and firmly embedded weeds, for swimmers to attempt to dive or swim underwater close to the banks, which taper off at a depth of about 60 feet. Messrs Gibbons and Prince, using self-contained compressed air equipment, swam the width of the lake along the bottom. They discovered that the lake’s greatest depth was 78ft. At that depth they saw a tortoise, measuring about 6in across. Small carp abound in the water, and there are numerous eels, many of them large. It was found that the lake is fed by fresh-water springs. One was at 40ft and another at the 18ft depth. Both have been mapped for the city council. It is thought, however, that there are other springs. The pumping house gate and structure was in poor condition, due to corrosion. An effort to locate the valve of the pumping station was unsuccessful. While the serious side of the work was going on, 10-year-old lan Bott speared a big eel. He fought the eel for some time, but the fish eventually broke the nylon line (501 b breaking strain) md departed spear and all.