Edwardes Lake Boating Trip in Reservoir

I'm not sure if you're actually allowed to go boating at Edwardes Lake or not. There is a boathouse, but apparently it's been vacant since the 1990s and is just used for Darebin City storage or something. There used to be a lot of boating in its history, but these days the lake water is considered to be pretty toxic. Swimming was allowed from 1919-1939. There is a master plan for the area to actually restore the water quality so that you could even swim here again - that would be amazing! But how toxic can this lake be - after all, the lower part of the Yarra is not exactly a clean waterway and is filled with stormwater and industrial waste but it is still a very popular rowing space. So, in the absence of signs about banned boating - plus a perfectly good boat ramp! - I went out on the lake on a little Saturday afternoon excursion, and to make the most of a 25 degree day that may not happen again until September.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself at this point - it was the perfect afternoon for relaxing in the middle of a tiny lake in the middle of Reservoir.

Here is my inflatable boat being inflated. It is an Intex Seahawk 2. It takes under ten minutes to inflate with a foot pump. Greta was the inspired friend who first suggested that you could use an inflatable boat to travel through Melbourne's waterways - as she says, why should all the rich people with their own private boathouses and jetties on the Yarra have all the fun?

A view of the disused 1970s boathouse and the power lines at the southern part of the lake - there used to a much older boathouse here that was burned down in a fire once.

It was a sunny, perfect afternoon for this kind of thing.

A brief stop off to pick up my boating companion!

I got a great lakeside view of this man catching a big fish. So, I am not sure if fishing here is banned or not. It looks like there are a lot of people that do this though (and also on nearby Merri Creek and Coburg Lake). There are signs up about not fishing in some places, and I'm also not sure if the fish would be polluted as well?

But this did not stop this family from a lot of celebration about the catch of the day!

There is a lot of birdlife here at this lake - perhaps the water quality has improved a lot since the original work to fix this space. I am not a local so I can't tell what has changed since the improvements have begun, but it seems like the lake has become pretty popular for the avian population.

A crew of gulls.

This is when people used to use the lake for boating in the eighties (photo from here)