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A Brief History of Collector
"Until now I thought Goulburn Plains to be the most delightful spot of the country I had seen in the Colony, but having seen Lake George from one of the highest hills close to the banks, I must decide in its favour."
So wrote William Hovell in October 1824 as he and Hamilton Hume passed through on their expedition to find the overland route to Westernport, 800 kms to the south.
Discovery and Settlement.
First discovered by Joseph Wild in 1820 and named after King George III, the ancient lake, named Weerewa by the local Ngunawal tribe, has existed as a lake for 5 million years, since Pleistocene times. Then it had a surface area twice the size of the valley today with water levels up to 37m. Charcoal deposits indicate human activity 120,000 years ago. When full it is Australia's largest fresh water lake, 23kms long and 12kms wide, and it has been called a mystery lake due to it's unpredictable and sudden changes in level. It was last full in the early 1970's and regularly disappears and reappears. When full, wind squalls make the lake a dangerous place - in 1956 five Duntroon cadets drowned when their boat capsized in a sudden squall.
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