Lake Torrens Lake Torrens. The full extent of Lake Torrens has been protected as a national park under the "National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972" since 1991. Lake Torrens is part of an area known as the "Inland Saline Lakes" which has been listed in the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia since at least 1995. Lake Torrens has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area known as the "Lake Torrens Important Bird Area" (IBA) because it supported up to 100,000 breeding banded stilts during the major filling event of 1989. It may occasionally support over 1% of the
River Torrens carcases in the Torrens within of town. The quality of the river's water was not helped by water supply methods. Carters used to drive water carts into the Torrens to refill. To prevent this the State Government built a facility with steam powered pumps and water storage in 1852, from which the carters then filled. The "Waterworks Act" of 1856 was passed to enable damming of the upstream Torrens for water supply purposes. The resulting "Water Commission" arranged the following year for foundations to be laid for a water supply weir from Adelaide near Campbelltown. Unsuitable geology and shoddy work