Thursday 16 April 2026 Wallaga Lake: Black Lagoon and Narira Creek

Launching from the end of Fairhaven Point Road we paddled away from the shore with no fixed destination in mind. S&V opted for Narira Creek so we headed to the right. 

With the lake closed and the gauge at Regatta Point reading .60m we glided easily over the sand bars at the entrance to Narira Creek. Passing Meads Bay with just a glance we paddled up the creek and through the narrow entrance into Black Lagoon. 

Poddling along the shoreline S spotted the so named Serenity Seats on the Black Lagoon walking trail and called a stop for morning tea.

We completed our shoreline crawl of the western part of Black Lagoon before re-entering the creek and paddling up river through farm land for about 3km before being stopped by an electric fence crossing the creek. As there was a barely submerged sandy beach and a tree for shade just up the slope we pulled in for lunch.

We'd barely settled before the landowner drove up and from the otherside of the river (which made for a rather awkward conversation) and said we were on private land and asked what we were doing. Apologising for being on her land I said we were just having some lunch and asked if she would like us to go. Thankfully, cos we were all hot and a bit buggered she said we could have our lunch and told us that private land started at the high water mark.

The landowner left us to it and while we munched we mused about the actual meaning of  high water mark and watched with amazement all the fish activity taking place on the barely submerged, orange algae strewn beach where we landed. They were hunting something and the bigger fishes backs would come half out of the water as they hunted in the shallows.

There was lots of fish activity in the creek as we paddled back - one nearly landed in S's lap. At one stage a couple of Sea Eagles circled overhead and I wondered if the murky water hindered their hunting.

Back down near the mouth of the creek we took the narrower western lead out into the lake and paddled through broadside choppy water back to the launch site. As S had hoped, the creek was sheltered.

Now, just in case your are interested here is the meaning of high water mark - tho' how one is to know where it actually is, is beyond me:

In NSW, the Mean High Water Mark (MHWM) is the legal boundary between private land and tidal waters, generally defined as the average of high tides (spring and neap) over a year. It is not a fixed, visible line, but a dynamic, surveyed boundary representing the "mean of all high tides" that often determines Crown Land ownership. 

NSW Spatial Services +2

12kms