Menindee Lakes
The Menindee Lakes is a system of 9 large, but relatively shallow lakes, located in south-west New South Wales on the Darling (Barka) River, about 200 km upstream of the Darling River's junction with the River Murray. The Darling River is fed by nine major tributary river systems flowing from south-east Queensland and north and central NSW. The town of Menindee is close to the lakes and the nearest city is Broken Hill.

There are 4 main lakes in the system:

* Lake Wetherell
* Lake Pamamaroo
* Lake Menindee (the largest lake)
* Lake Cawndilla.

The lakes rely on replenishment, when water flows over the banks of the Darling (Barka) River. The NSW Government modified the lakes (completed 1968) to improve their storage capacity for farming, recreation, mining and urban water supply and to help manage floods in the Darling River. In the 1960s, governments decided to use some of the lakes as water storages, building a large weir (Main Weir) to divert water into lakes Pamamaroo, Tandure and Bijijie. Levees, block dams and channels were built to regulate the flow of water in the system. There is relatively little information on the flooding regimes of the lakes before they were regulated (dammed) in the 1960s but they were undoubtedly highly productive and important wetland systems where many fish were spawned. 

The Menindee Lakes Water Storage Scheme supplies water to Broken Hill, the lower Darling and to water users along the Murray River in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia under the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement. Seven of the lakes have been incorporated in an artificially regulated overflow system providing both for flood mitigation and as storage for domestic use, livestock and irrigation downstream. The lakes are also important for waterbirds.

Recent research (Thoms and Delong 2018) found that the food webs have changed in a way that suggests that the ecological resilience of the system has declined.
Q3224
New South Wales
LOC
Q181482
Darling (Barka) River
LOC
Q183078
River Murray
LOC
Q36074
Queensland
LOC
Q270734
Broken Hill
LOC
Q1061108
supplies water
Concept
Q270734
Broken Hill
LOC
Q183078
Murray River
LOC
Q36687
Victoria
LOC
Q35715
South Australia
LOC
Q103459
livestock
Concept
Q11453
irrigation
Concept
Q3303681
waterbird
Concept
Q6817083
Menindee Lakes
LOC
Q6817083
Menindee Lakes
LOC
1968-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1968
DATE
1960-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1960
DATE
1960-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1960
DATE
2018-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2018
DATE
+9^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
9
NUMBER
+4^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
4
NUMBER
located in the administrative territorial entity
inflows
located in the administrative territorial entity
mouth of the watercourse
located in the administrative territorial entity