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Penrith Lakes

Lakes of New South Wales

Penrith Lakes, also known as Western Sydney Lakes, is an area located in the suburb of Castlereagh near Penrith in the Western Sydney Region. It features lakes and parklands as well as recreational facilities.The lakes themselves are a series of 12 man-made quarries from which coarse sand and gravel has been mined since the 1880s, with large-scale mining operations occurring since the 1950s. Penrith Lakes was the largest sand and gravel quarry in Australia until the discontinuation of mining activities in 2015. Penrith Lakes is managed by the Penrith Lakes Development Corporation (PLDC) which was formed in 1980 by the three companies that operated quarries in the area that joined together and combined their land. They planned to rehabilitate the land that was quarried so it could be used for recreational purposes with the Penrith Lakes Scheme.The area also contains the Sydney International Regatta Centre which was one of the first parts of the Penrith Lakes Scheme to be completed. The Regatta Centre was one of the event locations used during the Sydney Summer Olympic Games in 2000.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Penrith Lakes (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Penrith Lakes
Sydney Castlereagh

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Wikipedia: Penrith LakesContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N -33.707792 ° E 150.675453 °
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Upper Castlereagh


2749 Sydney, Castlereagh
New South Wales, Australia
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Penrith Whitewater Stadium
Penrith Whitewater Stadium

The Penrith Whitewater Stadium is located near Sydney, Australia. It is an artificial whitewater sporting facility which hosted the canoe/kayak slalom events at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. The facility is part of the Penrith Lakes Scheme, which is converting open-pit sand and gravel mines into lakes for recreation. It is close to Cranebrook and is adjacent to the Sydney International Regatta Centre. These lakes are not filled via the Nepean River, but are filled via rain water and ground water. The operation of the facility aerates the water and improves water quality in the flat water rowing and canoeing course. The course is in the shape of a massive 'U', 320 metres in length, between 0.8 and 1.2 metres deep and between eight and 12 metres wide. The overall drop from top to bottom is 5.5 metres. During events a conveyor belt is used to take boats, and their occupants, from the finishing pool back to the start. As the course has been built in a relatively flat area (flood plain), it has been built up and landscaped to create the sloping course necessary for the required rapids. Five of the six available 300-kilowatt pumps lift the water from the bottom to the start of the course, at the rate of 14 m³/s. The channel is constructed from concrete with sloping sides. By setting river pebbles into the concrete an effect to make the course look like a natural river has been created. Large immovable rocks shape the course, as well as movable obstacles which may be used for varying the difficulty of the course and for fine-tuning of the rapids. The total cost of construction was $AU6 million, of which $1.5 million was paid by Penrith City Council, $1.5 million by the International Canoe Federation (including $300,000 by Australian Canoeing) and $3 million by the Government of New South Wales. The facility, which includes a cafe, is a popular recreational area, offering large rubber raft rides, as well as individual kayaking/canoeing. It is regularly used for local, national and international canoeing/slalom events. It is accessed via McCarthys Lane, which runs off Castlereagh Road, Cranebrook. It served as the host venue for the 2005 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. It also hosted the 2014 Junior/U-23 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. On 1 July 2023, the NSW Office of Sport took over operation of venue.