Lake Tutchewop monument. Unveiled April 4, 2021. Photo: Carmen Jobson.
Lake Tutchewop: 1930s. Mrs Phoebe Reilly and daughter.
A small crowd gathered at Lake Tutchewop on Easter Sunday for the unveiling of an historical monument with plaque. It was an initiative of the Benjeroop Hall Committee to record a once popular swimming place.
Benjeroop Hall Committee president, Mr Lindsay Schultz, spoke and introduced John Jobson of Tresco to unveil the plaque. After thanking Lindsay and the hall committee for their effort, John spoke about Lake Tutchewop and its place within the Kerang Lakes system. He gave a resume of the lake prior to European settlement and its evolution as irrigation storage, before speaking about the Tutchewop aquatic club.
Lake Tutchewop was once the region’s most popular lake. It was the only lake with a sandy beach.
It became known as the ‘St. Kilda beach of the north’ after Tresco settlers formed the Lake Tutchewop Athletic and Aquatic Club in 1928. Bathing boxes (dressing sheds) were erected and willow trees planted along the beach. An athletic running track was set down between the lake and road. A pier and a diving board were in place with a marked area for competition swimming. The 20-acre area was named Tutchewop Park.
The first carnival held on New Year’s Day 1929 attracted over 600 people. Carnivals were held each New Year’s Day for eight years. People came from Kerang, Swan Hill, Ultima and Deniliquin. Swan Hill aviator, Alan Dunoon, once landed his plane in a nearby paddock during one carnival and took joyriders flying at $3 per flight.
School children were taught swimming at the lake and regular swimming events were held during summer.
Professional fishermen caught fish, which were railed from Tresco railway station to the Melbourne market.
Carnivals ceased in 1936. A water commission decision de-commissioned Lake Tutchewop and bypassed it with a large channel. In 1968 the former freshwater lake became a salt disposal basin for the Barr Creek. Tutchewop has evaporated salty water for 50 years. It is seldom used these days and now usually remains dry with a skin of salt on its base. The bathing boxes remain standing but are in poor repair due to vandalism.
The monument was then unveiled with the words “in the hope the lake one day in future may again become the St. Kilda beach of the north.”
