About Lake Cowal

Lake Cowal forms part of a large ephemeral inland wetland system in the Lachlan Catchment and is located 43 km northwest of West Wyalong, and approximately 60 km south west of Forbes in Central New South Wales, Australia. Significant concentrations of water birds visit the Lake and the Australian Heritage Commission listed Lake Cowal on the Register of the National Estate in 1992.

Lake Cowal is New South Wales' largest natural inland lake at approximately 21 km long and 9.5 km wide with an average depth of around 2.5m and covering an area of over 13,000 hectares when full.

During the summer of 2000/2001 Lake Cowal dried out completely and remained dry until March 2010 when it commenced refilling mainly via flows from Bland Creek , reaching capacity and flowing into the smaller Nerang Cowal during March 2011. A small amount of water flowed into Lake Cowal during the spring of 2005 covering approximately 1,200 hectares, but being shallow it dried out within 3 months.