Tullah and surrounds trying to make the best of oil spill shutdown of Lake Rosebery (23/1/25. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-23/rosebery-lake-oil-spill-shutdown-fallout-continues/104849884)
Truckloads of water are being delivered to a tiny town on Tasmania’s west coast after a large oil spill contaminated its drinking supply.
A slick black line can be seen on the banks of Lake Rosebery at Tullah and the spill has stained the stems of freshwater reeds along the shoreline.
Residents have been told to conserve the water they do have.
Brendan Taylor, senior investigator for Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA), said TasWater was delivering three to four truckloads of unaffected water to the town’s mains each day.
“Locals can rest assured when they do the turn on the tap it isn’t coming from the lake,” Mr Taylor said.
At this time of year, the lake is usually abuzz with fishers, kayakers and swimmers, but now only EPA boats staffed by people in full-body hazardous material suits can be seen.
They are attending to booms installed to contain the oil leak, up to 5,000 litres of which began flowing into the lake more than a week ago after heavy rainfall on January 12, creating a “significant risk” to the public.
Mr Taylor said crews had limited the spill to pockets, stopping it from spreading further, and were now turning efforts to removal.
“We suspect upwards or around 30 kilometres of shoreline has been potentially impacted, we’ve confirmed roughly about 18 kilometres of that shoreline thus far in our investigation,” Mr Taylor said.
The lake has been closed to all recreational users for more than a week and will remain off limits until at least midnight on January 31.
Locals directing tourists elsewhere
Local Stuart Davis, who owns the Tullah Cottage Cafe, said the impact on the community had been minimal, and he was pleased with the response so far.
“It is what it is,” he said.
“What is happening on Lake Rosebery is beyond anybody’s control.”
Had he not been alerted, Mr Davis said he wouldn’t have noticed any difference to the lake’s appearance.
“To me, the lake still looks beautiful,” he said.
Mr Davis said it was an opportunity to direct visitors to some of the other offerings in the area.
“With our face-to-face contact we have with people, we can actually say, ‘Well, Lake Rosebery is not the only lake in the area, you can go to Lake Mackintosh just up the road, you can go to Lake Plimsoll,’ so there’s other opportunities for them to enjoy the water and their sports,” he said.
Despite it being the height of the tourism season, Mary Swaney, a bar attendant at Tullah Lakeside Lodge, said she hadn’t seen a drop off in visitation.
“Some of the tourists aren’t happy, they’ve come here because they want to have, you know, the experience with the lake … and when they come here and actually find out they can’t, they’re a little bit disappointed,” she said.
“I’ve had one and he’s come all the way from Launceston, and he was not happy, and he just gave us his keys and said he’s going back to Launceston because he just wanted to come here and swim on the lake.”
She said she understood his disappointment, but the closure was for the best.
Scottish cyclists Gary and Jacqui Williamson have been travelling around Tasmania on road bikes, “enjoying some fine scenery and great weather”.
“We were hoping for a dip in the lake to ease the legs off and just relax and enjoy it, so it’s disappointing, unfortunately,” Ms Williamson said.
“I hope they can get it sorted soon, so everyone else can enjoy it for the rest of summer.”
The couple said it meant they’d turn to other lakes in the region instead.
“We’re here on holiday, so we’re only affected marginally, I hope that nobody else is worse affected than we are,” Mr Williamson said.