Nagambie Club 2 Pub Open Water Swim

Lake Nagambie owes its sheltered, glassy expanse to Australia's first major irrigation dam, which in 1891 drowned a chain of natural river lagoons into an 1,120-hectare freshwater basin. Set across these tranquil inland waters, the Nagambie Club 2 Pub Open Water Swim brings swimmers together in the town of Nagambie, in regional Victoria.

The Goulburn Weir: drowning lagoons into Lake Nagambie

The reservoir where swimmers compete exists because of a historic feat of nineteenth-century engineering. Between 1887 and early 1891, engineers built the Goulburn Weir, about eight kilometres away, establishing the very first major irrigation diversion structure in Australia. To anchor the barrier against the river's flow, builders hauled heavy granite from Mount Black, twenty-four kilometres to the south-west. The resulting concrete gravity dam wall stands 15 metres high and stretches 212 metres across the waterway. Beyond regulating water levels for inland farming, the pioneering installation originally housed one of the earliest hydro-electric turbines anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere.

Taungurung lagoons and the backwaters of Tahbilk

Long before European engineering altered the riverbed, the landscape was a mosaic of quiet waterways. For generations, the Taungurung people camped along the tributaries of the Goulburn River during winter and spring, relying on a water ecosystem teeming with freshwater fish, river eels, crustaceans, and waterfowl. A trace of that ancient wetland environment survives about six kilometres away at Tahbilk, a property on the Goulburn River whose name derives from the Aboriginal term 'tabilk-tabilk', or 'place of many waterholes'. When the Goulburn Weir raised water levels across the valley, it shaped an extensive network of backwater wetlands filled with warm, slow-moving water connected to the river channel. Floating mats of the Water Shield Lily, Brasenia schreberi, flourish throughout these calm shallows. The protected wetlands also provide a vital breeding sanctuary for the native freshwater catfish Tandanus tandanus, a river species that has suffered severe declines across the broader Murray-Darling Basin.

The Club 2 Pub swim on Lake Nagambie

The course follows a circuit loop that starts at the Nagambie Rowing Club, heads out into the open lake, and turns back toward the shore. Swimmers can choose between two race distances: a 600-metre dash and a longer 1,100-metre course. Lake Nagambie's tree-lined shores protect the surface from ocean-style swells, giving swimmers calm, glassy freshwater conditions that are particularly welcoming for beginners and masters swimmers alike. Without tides, surf, or salt stinging the eyes, the strokes feel rhythmic and steady as you navigate between the turn markers. While the 1,100-metre event awards the Ryan Gowty trophy to the fastest overall male and female swimmers across categories from Juniors to Legends, the heart of the day remains deeply communal. Spectators line the grassy riverbanks to cheer on every wave, and competitors gather right after finishing for cold drinks and hot snacks.

The open water swim through the Nagambie On Water years

The Nagambie On Water Festival, which hosts the Club 2 Pub open water swim on Lake Nagambie, has been held every year since 2008. Ryan Gowty, whose name the overall winners' trophy now carries, won the junior category of the Nagambie open water swim in 2009 and placed third fastest male overall. Nagambie residents and visitors gathered at Lake Nagambie on Saturday 24 February 2024 to send off the summer, the day of that year's Nagambie Waterways open swim. In 2024 the 600 m open swim started at the sound of a horn. Members of the Shepparton Swimming Club joined the Nagambie Waterways open swim that year. That year swimmers wore blue swim caps made exclusively for Nagambie on Water as they gathered on the banks of Lake Nagambie.

Buckley Park: lawns and waterfront on the southern shore

The entire race village operates out of Buckley Park, situated directly on the southern shore of Lake Nagambie. The park acts as a natural gathering point for the town, equipped with a public boat ramp, picnic grounds, shaded barbecue areas, water taps, and the rowing club facilities. Lawns slope down toward the lake edge, providing broad views over the water where swimmers warm up before their heats. Lakeside touches give the park a distinct local character, including colourful mosaic murals decorating the exterior walls of the amenities pavilion. Across the warmer summer months, an inflatable water park floats on the shallows just off the park's edge, adding to the easygoing holiday energy by the lake. It makes for a relaxed post-race afternoon on the southern shore, where you can step straight out of Lake Nagambie, dry off on the grass, and celebrate the swim with the community.