Lake Onslow
Lake Onslow is a man-made lake east of Roxburgh and south of Alexandra in the Otago region of New Zealand. It lies 700 m above sea level. It was formed in 1890 by the damming of the Teviot River and Dismal Swamp.
The lake is the subject of several paintings by the late Edward Mullor.
In 2019, the Climate Change Commission proposed that the lake be used for a pumped hydro-storage system to provide backup electricity generation in dry years. The project had first been proposed in 2005 by hydrologist Earl Bardsley of the University of Waikato. In July 2020, Minister of Energy Megan Woods announced that the New Zealand government would fund a detailed feasibility study of the plan. If progressed, the scheme would be the biggest infrastructure project in New Zealand since the 1980s, employ an estimated 3500 to 4500 people, and take four to five years to build and a further two years to fill.
