18 kilometers from Emerald and almost on top of the tropic of Capricorn line, Lake Maraboon is Queensland's second largest lake.

It is 265 km west of Rockampton and 900km from Brisbane. At a massive 15000 hectares surface area when full and holding 1.3 million megalitres of water, the Fairbairn Dam was constructed in 1972 across the Nagoa River "Gap" creating Lake Maraboon (Aboriginal for "where the black ducks fly")

Currently the dam levels are very low due to the drought.