It's the disappearing lake that's been a constant source of fascination for Canberra tourists and many of its locals.
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Now new satellite imagery has helped shed light on water levels in Lake George going back more than 30 years.
The images, produced by Geoscience Australia as part of the Digital Earth Australia project, shows water levels in the lake moving in distinct cycles.
Starting from 1987, the satellite images show the lake had large parts which had water throughout the year during the late 1980s.
By 1994, the amount of time water was in the lake gradually declined each year until 2008 when all water had disappeared, largely due to the millennium drought.
That drought then broke for Lake George during 2010, increasing again during 2012 and even further during 2016.
Geoscience Australia acting head of national earth and marine observations Trevor Dhu said the new images were taken from American and European satellites that were previously unavailable.
"What we've done is we've taken data for the last 30 years and put it all through the fastest supercomputer in Australia," Dr Dhu said.
"We've been doing prototypes for this sort of work for about five years, and we've had operational capacity since July last year."
As part of the satellite imagery, water levels and land features the size of an AFL goal square are able to be detected in any part of the country across the 30-year period.
Software developer Belle Tissott, who put the satellite data together, said the new images have helped show distinct patterns over the years in Lake George.
"You can see the drought play out and gradually empties the lake over several years and then it breaking. Over the years you can see it cycle through and see the lake fill up again," Ms Tissott said.
"Lake George was chosen for these images because there's been such a fascination for lots of people in the region, and many people have memories of the lake being so full with no grassland at all."
It's hoped the same technology that's been used to map Lake George over 30 years can be used for other parts of Australia to help in environmental planning.
"One of the next things we're planning to do is combine this sort of satellite data along with climate data from the Bureau of Meteorology to be able to tell richer stories about rainfall and use it as an indicator for groundwater resources," Dr Dhu said.
"We're hoping to get this sort of data out to farmers so they can look at the historical trends in water patterns so they can plan where to plant and graze, and that's really exciting."
