Crater lake · Australia
Blue Lake
Large monomictic lake in Mount Gambier, South Australia
- Area
- 0.5km²
- Max depth
- 75m
- Average depth
- 9.0m
- Elevation
- 25m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 2.7km
- Volume
- 0.004km³
Blue Lake is a crater lake in Australia. It covers 0.5 km². On average it is 9.0 m deep, and 75 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 25 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Blue Lake?
The water is warmest in January, around 23 °C at the surface, and coldest in July, around 13 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from December to March: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 22 °C on average in January and 13 °C in July. The driest month is February (27 mm of rain), the wettest July (95 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (50 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23 | 23 | 22 | 14 | 32 | 5 | 10.5 | 18 |
| February | 23 | 23 | 22 | 14 | 27 | 5 | 9.4 | 18 |
| March | 21 | 22 | 21 | 14 | 38 | 7 | 8.0 | 17 |
| April | 19 | 20 | 18 | 12 | 48 | 8 | 6.2 | 17 |
| May | 16 | 17 | 16 | 11 | 69 | 13 | 4.7 | 18 |
| June | 14 | 15 | 14 | 10 | 89 | 15 | 4.3 | 19 |
| July | 13 | 13 | 13 | 9 | 95 | 17 | 4.4 | 21 |
| August | 13 | 14 | 14 | 9 | 94 | 17 | 5.5 | 22 |
| September | 15 | 16 | 15 | 9 | 69 | 14 | 6.5 | 20 |
| October | 17 | 18 | 16 | 10 | 53 | 10 | 7.7 | 19 |
| November | 20 | 21 | 18 | 11 | 50 | 8 | 8.7 | 18 |
| December | 22 | 23 | 20 | 13 | 43 | 7 | 9.8 | 19 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 136 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 0 km² of land.
- About 0.0 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Blue Lake
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 4campsites
Mt Gambier Showgrounds, Blue Lake Holiday Park, Pine Country Caravan Park, Mt Gambier Central Caravan Park
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 18viewpoints
Blue Lake, Blue Lake Lookout, Potters Point, Hoo Hoo Lookout, Leg of Mutton Lake Lookout and 13 more
- 2hotels, B&Bs and chalets
The Old Mount Gambier Gaol, Comfort Inn The Lakes
- —fishing spots
- 3restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Mount Gambier25,591 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Mount Gambier Airport (MGB), 11 km in a straight line.
OpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | 22.0 | 21.7 | 20.7 | 18.4 | 15.9 | 13.9 | 13.3 | 13.5 | 14.8 | 16.4 | 18.5 | 20.0 |
| 2020 | ±0.0 | −1.4 | −1.0 | −1.5 | −1.0 | −0.3 | −0.3 | −0.3 | +0.6 | −1.0 | +1.4 | −1.9 |
| 2021 | −1.3 | −0.7 | −0.9 | −0.2 | +0.1 | +0.4 | −0.2 | +0.3 | ±0.0 | −1.2 | −0.9 | −0.6 |
| 2022 | +2.0 | −0.4 | +0.1 | +0.8 | −0.1 | −0.4 | −0.1 | +0.2 | −0.6 | −0.1 | −1.2 | −0.2 |
| 2023 | −0.4 | −0.3 | −1.8 | −0.1 | −0.3 | +0.5 | +0.7 | +1.0 | +1.9 | +0.1 | −0.9 | −1.5 |
| 2024 | −0.7 | +0.2 | +1.3 | −1.6 | +0.3 | −0.3 | ±0.0 | +2.3 | ±0.0 | +1.2 | +1.7 | +1.3 |
| 2025 | +1.3 | +1.4 | +2.1 | +1.4 | +1.4 | +0.3 | +0.3 | +0.9 | +0.4 | −0.2 | −2.2 | −0.4 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
About these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q2790756) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
