Darwin - As the sixth largest country in the world, Australia has tens to hundreds of lakes. Probably the most unique Rum Jungle Lake. This place was once mine uranium containing radiation!
Rum Jungle is located in the state of Northern Teritory, Australia, approximately 65 km south-west of Darwin. When we came to visit, water lake located before the entrance to the Litchfield National Park looks cloudy.
Surrounding air is also quite hot. Plants around the lake is pretty barren. You could say these are physical lake has no special appeal.
"But still there is a crossing coming to see this lake. Lake has a story," said Ann Qory, tour guide from Darwin, on location, on Tuesday (07/09/2013).
It turns out that the region is now the Rum Jungle Lake is quite popular in the 1950s. The place was the site of a uranium mine opened in 1949. When the Rum Jungle mine site became the largest in Australia.
"But in 1971 something happened. Currently the contractor and the government is not aware of a shift in monsoon cycle," said the guide Qory Media group Familirization Trip organized by Air Asia.
Heavy rain for days. Mining location which is close to the Finnis River was gradually flooded. Scraper tools could not be saved.
Uranium sites are still gaping after dredged and no time was taken completely submerged and dissolved in water. And the Australian Atomic Energy Agency and the contractors who worked on the mine at the time refused to perform environmental remediation.
New in 1977 an attempt to neutralize the radioactive content in the lake Rum Jungle performed. That, too, after the spread of radiation in the Finnis River and declared a disaster in Australia's biggest polluters.
But the cleanup efforts of radioactive material have not been fully completed. A number of studies conducted periodically mention still in the water content of Gamma Rum Jungle.
It causes the Rum Jungle is the only waters in Darwin is not an alligator nest. But, it has actually become popular Rum Jungle.
Many people who do not care about the persistence of the radiation warnings on the lake. The lake actually be a canoe race, swim and even dive. Community feel safe even in the absence of freshwater crocodiles that roam the lake.