Smiths Lake, an intermittently closed youthful saline coastal lagoon,[1] is located within the Mid-Coast Council local government area in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Smiths Lake is located adjacent to the village of Smiths Lake, and adjacent to the east coast, about 274 kilometres north of Sydney.
Drawing its catchment from within Wallingat National Park, Wallingat State Forest and the Wamwarra and Tarbuck creeks, Smiths Lake has a relatively small catchment area of 28 square kilometres and a surface area of 10 square kilometres.
Part of the lake shore is a sandbar that separates the lake from the Tasman Sea. When the Mid-Coast Council deems that the lake water level is too high and may cause flooding to low-lying areas around the lake, a trench is constructed from the lake to the ocean using a bulldozer. This releases water from the lake into the ocean and considerably lowers the lake water level.
