Now eight-storey high wind turbines throw shimmering reflections across the eastern side, the scene of most unlikely drownings.

The lake's notoriety was entrenched before Europeans arrived. ACT Parks and Conservation Ngunnawal ranger Adrian Brown says Lake George was known for its bad spirits and a bunyip, a mythical creature of Aboriginal legend, which haunts swamps and billabongs. The Pajong, a clan group of the Ngunnawal people lived out that way and the whole area was an abundant food source. Spirits included Birik, a real bad one that tormented people.

Whether shrouded in fog or shining in sunlight, the 67 giant wind turbines today add a fresh layer of mystery to a dynamic landmark and ever-changing shrine. Bungendore resident Rosie Windsor, who moved to Lake Road 28 years ago from Sydney's north shore, describes her surroundings as paradise.

When she sees a silver path ripple across the water under a full moon she's sure Jesus would walk across it.

Twenty-two years ago she and her husband left their home in a thick fog, with her mother at home minding their children. Windsor returned later and wondered why cups and saucers had been set out on the table.

Her mother recounted a thumping noise as if the world was ending, followed by clumping steps on the veranda. Four soldiers arrived. They said they had been returning to Canberra from the coast, when heavy fog forced their Blackhawk helicopter to land 20 metres from the Windsors' home.

Her mother made them tea and gave them cake, hence the crockery sitting on the table. The next morning a second helicopter arrived to help retrieve the first one. ''I woke up in the morning and there was this massive helicopter beside the house,'' Windsor said.

One clear morning when water had returned to the lake she was astonished to see what looked like a monster emerge from the distance, only to realise it was a big wild boar.

ABC news producer Bill McLeod and his partner, book editor Pauline McGuire, bought their Lake Road home with water frontage about seven years ago. They rejoice in the ever-changing scenery throughout the day and night. McGuire says, ''I preferred the view before the wind turbines, but if you are going to have a major industries site, which is what a wind farm is, it's probably the best sort to have - that's how I feel about it. At times they can be beautiful, you know, in certain lights, the objects themselves are beautiful. I preferred the un-touched landscape.''

Pinkish late afternoon light shows the landscape at its best, although the couple lose their sunlight early because the escarpment is directly behind them.

They bought their lake-side home from Milton Simms, a wholesale rose operator who established a rural supplies shop in Bungendore and died in 2005. His son Greg said the family arrived at Lake George in 1975 and often sailed on the water, wary of its treacherous reputation.

''It's fairly difficult to access for a boat unless you know where to get in. A lot of people avoided it for those reasons, and it had this reputation for blowing up into dangerous conditions quite quickly.''

On a still summer afternoon, with the water like glass, Simms was in his timber Mirror dinghy when he peeled off his life jacket to sunbake.

''One of the summer afternoon storms blew up and before long the boat was capsizing and my life jacket was drifting away and I had a decision to make whether to pursue the life jacket, because I knew my father's wrath would be pretty horrible when I got ashore without the life jacket. But I decided to stay with the boat and eventually the storm abated and I was able to sail back to shore. I was never able to find the life jacket.''

Coupled with the fast changing conditions and icy water, another danger lies beneath the surface.

''That boat ended up being holed by timber fence posts at one stage, we pulled it out of the water with a big gash like the Titanic at the side of it.''

Two men supposedly spotlight-shooting feral deer from their dingy in 1992 drowned in the lake. A police helicopter crew called to the scene found a spotlight in the water. A search boat crew later found a second powerful light. A coronial hearing the following year was told the deer shooting theory was a red herring. The 31-year-old man and his 27 year-old companion, who had set out after 9pm had been fishing, according to relatives.

As treacherous as the lake has been, it's no match for the deadly, man-made scenario of the 1980s and 1990s, when major highways were being duplicated between Canberra and Sydney, leaving a stretch of single carriageway along the end of Lake George.

Drivers who didn't slow down on the inferior road often paid with their life. In a six year period 21 lives were lost. The years 1989 and 1990 were horrors with 56 crashes, four deaths and 19 injuries as construction of a dual carriageway finally began.

Canberra Yacht Club historian Peter Forster says boats began sailing on Lake George in the early 1960s. ''I've got some movie footage taken in 1961, you'd swear you were down the coast. It's a huge expanse of water.''

Early regattas attracted big numbers of people from Sydney including eminent yachtsman Sir James Hardie. Forster remembers: ''People tended to travel more for sailing in those days than they do now, although it was a bit of a drag from Sydney, it was a five hour trip in those days.''

Sailors used the Royal Military College's boat shed as headquarters. Strong winds from the east would force the water up the lake and nearly flood the old road and threatened the old sailing club buildings from time to time near Geary's Gap. Forster says even if the lake re-filled it is unlikely to attract sailors because of the submerged fence lines.

A book Foster helped compile, From Lake George to Lake Burley Griffin says westerly winds forced events to be postponed. Rescue launches were so busy that several yachtsmen waited for nearly an hour after capsizing before they could be picked up.

Another captive of the lake's intrigue is prolific Canberra author Graeme Barrow, who has just releasedMagnificent Lake George - The Biography.

He started fossicking around the lake for historical interest from the time Governor Macquarie first clapped eyes on the natural expanse of water in 1820, and became hooked completely.

Barrow's work covers geological, aboriginal and early European history, from the time thousands of water birds of every description congregated there. Many were shot or poisoned by farmers protecting crops.

Barrow says most people have heard of the drowning of five cadets from Duntroon which gave the lake its sinister reputation.

Lesser known is the tragedy 18 months later, when a Queanbeyan man, his wife, three children and a Catholic priest set out in a skiff in January, 1958, for a picnic. On their return, and to the man's horror, he discovered only a quarter of a tank of fuel left. After futile attempts to row, some people stood up in the boat causing it to sink.

''The tragedy continued to unfold until the end when the only survivor was the Roman Catholic priest. He gave a very harrowing statement to the inquest,'' says Barrow.

''Even today, so many years on it is still very difficult to read that statement he made, especially about the little kids.''

Fences and gates discourage access to the lake. Barrow says right of entry is ambiguous. Palerang Council's general manager Peter Bascomb says access is restricted in many parts of the lake because the land is leased by farmers. Bungendore businessman Greg Nye would like to see better access and for the water to be stocked with fish, as it was in the past.

Over 15,580 hectares and 30 kilometres long and 11 kilometres wide, the lake is about seven metres deep at its deepest point.

ANU researchers believe the lake was much larger in the geologically recent past and would have over-flowed through a V-shaped notch at Geary's Gap. It would have been about 32 metres deep.

In a 2005 presentation Dr Liz Truswell and Professor Patrick De Deckker from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences, said the lake lies east of a big block of uplifted country, known as the Cullerin Block. Cullerin's eastern edge is formed by the Lake George Fault and a steep scarp has been left by that fault.

An 1886 lithograph in the scientists' presentation shows a steamship on the lake, which drew people from Sydney. They travelled to Collector by train. The scientists say there is no mystery about the lake's changing water levels.

''They are directly related to the amount of rainfall on the lake catchment, and proportion of moisture that is evaporated from the lake surface.''