ABOUT LAKES ENTRANCE
East Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, covering 31,740 square kilometers (14%) of Victoria. It has a population of 80,114 people. Lakes Entrance is a seaside resort and fishing port situated approximately 320 kilometers east of Melbourne, near a managed, artificial channel connecting the Gippsland Lakes to the Bass Strait. Lakes Entrance and District comprise of the following localities: Lakes Entrance, Bullock Island, Kalimna, Kalimna West, Lake Bunga, Lake Tyers Beach, Toorloo Arm, Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust, Mill Point, The Barrier, Nowa Nowa, Tostaree, Wairewa and Wombat Creek. Lakes entrance town center is a 40-minute drive (39.8km) to the major township of East Gippsland, Bairnsdale.  a 45 min (59.3 km) via Princes highway to Orbost as well.
MULTI HAZARD AWARNESS
BUSHFIRES
It is critical to understand the risk of where you are staying as a tourist. In Lakes, Entrance bushfires over summer have posed a continuous threat and will continue to with temperatures rising and days of fire danger increasing. The potential for a bushfire to start spread across the landscape, and do damage defines the danger it poses as a result of the combination of fuel and weather conditions. In Australia, the term fire danger also indicates how difficult a fire will be to suppress. East Gippsland has been affected various times to various extents including the 2007, 2009 bushfires, and most recently the 2019/2020 bushfires. Various townships, houses, and people have been affected to various degrees over these years. the nature of bushfires
Safety is a priority and in order to prepare for these events which may occur, you must be aware of the risk these landscapes and towns are under during your visit
​
FLOODS
In conjunction with fire danger, flooding is another emergency condition important to be acknowledged within Lakes Entrance. Lakes Entrance sits in one of the most vulnerable coastal areas in Australia. Floods have regularly inundated low-lying Lakes Entrance, in the heart of the environmentally sensitive Gippsland lakes system. 2015 CSIRO analysis on Gippsland’s climate change vulnerability determined that by 2030, seas would be up to 0.20m above the 1986-2005 level. Major flooding events have occurred in Lakes entrance during June 2012 and 2007, and the frequency is expected to increase with sea levels rising. On top of this, the fire events of December 2019 and January 2020 mean that they may be greater flood risk over spring 2020.
​
If you are in town during an emergency Call the SES for flood or storm emergency assistance at 132 500 or call 000 for life-threatening emergencies.
2019-2020 BUSHFIRES
BACKGROUND
The 2019 and 2020 bushfires were catastrophic on an unprecedented level across Australia. Fires had been burning across New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, and Western Australia since September 2019. Fires also broke out in Tasmania and South Australia in late October. By late November Victoria was beginning to burn by lightning strikes in East Gippsland, affected communities and areas around Wulgulmerang, Gelantipy, W Tree, Buchan, Wairewa, Bruthen, Sarsfield, and the Tambo Valley. Fires continued to burn through January with lakes entrance hit the hardest from 29th of December until late January. The following is an account of physical damages and lives lost
Bairnsdale & District—97 houses
Mallacoota & District—104 houses
Bruthen & District—3 houses
Buchan & District—38 houses
Cann Valley & District—20 houses
Lakes Entrance & District—18 houses
Errinundra to Snowy Sub District—13 houses
Omeo Region—11 houses
Orbost & District—23 houses
Twin Rivers District—2 houses
3 people dead
References images
2019, https://blog.campermate.com.au/getaway-guides/vic/lakes-entrance-fishing-guide/
RachaelBrown,2020, https://www.createdigital.org.au/3-ways-engineers-taking-steps-protect-people-bushfires/
FloodSafe,2007, https://www.ses.vic.gov.au/documents/112015/134792/Lakes+Entrance+Local+Flood+Guide.pdf/6abf0027-5e85-4561-9ea9-b15c58e540d8