Lake Murray

Where is Lake Murray?

Countries on its shores: Papua New Guinea.

Largest lake of: Papua New Guinea.

Middle of the lake: 7.00° S, 141.50° E

The story behind it

In the dry season Lake Murray covers about 650 square kilometres, but in the rainy season it can grow several times bigger. Even so, it is shallow – at most about 10 metres deep. It is up to 63 kilometres long and 18 kilometres wide. Several rivers flow into it, and its water leaves through the Herbert River, which joins the Strickland and Fly rivers on the way to the Gulf of Papua. Thousands of people live in small villages on the narrow sand ridges along the shore and on islands in the lake, and the local peoples own the lake and the forest around it. The biggest island is Botoa Island in the west. Big fish swim in the water: Leichhardt's sawfish can grow several metres long. People also tell of a mysterious creature called 'Murray' that is said to look like a dinosaur, but no one has proved that it exists.

Find it on the globe

Lake Murray is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.