Lake Gairdner | |
---|---|
Location in South Australia | |
Location | Central South Australia |
Coordinates | 31°34′S136°00′E / 31.567°S 136.000°E Coordinates: 31°34′S136°00′E / 31.567°S 136.000°E |
Type | Endorheic, salt lake |
Basin countries | Australia |
Designation | Lake Gairdner National Park |
Max. length | 160 km (99 mi) |
Max. width | 48 km (30 mi) |
Surface elevation | 121 m (397 feet) [1] |
Lake Gairdner is a large endorheic salt lake in the Australian state of South Australia, to the north of the Eyre Peninsula. When in flood, the lake is considered the third largest salt lake in Australia. [2]
Lake Gairdner is located about 440 kilometres (270 mi) northwest of the state capital of Adelaide and about 150 kilometres (93 mi) northwest of Port Augusta in the foothills on the northern side of the Gawler Ranges and to the west of Lake Torrens.[ citation needed ]
The lake is over 160 km (99 mi) long and 48 km (30 mi) across with salt over 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in) thick in some places.[ citation needed ]
Lake Gairdner was named by the Governor of South Australia, Richard MacDonnell in October 1857 after Gordon Gairdner, a Chief Clerk of the Australian Department in the Colonial Office.
Lake Gairdner along with Lake Everard and Lake Harris form the extent of the Lake Gairdner National Park. [3] The lakes were all once part of an inland sea that stretched all the way to the Gulf of Carpentaria. [4]
Six ephemeral creeks feed the lake including Garden Well Creek, Gorge Creek and Yeltabinna Creek. [5]
The land occupying the extent of Lake Gairdner was gazetted as a locality by the Government of South Australia on 26 April 2013 under the name 'Lake Gairdner'. [6] [7]
It has been a site for various land speed record attempts on its salt flats and is currently the location for the annual Speed Week event run by the Dry Lakes Racers Australia. [8] [9]
Lake Eyre, officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some 700 km (435 mi) north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the lowest natural point in Australia at approximately 15 m (49 ft) below sea level (AHD), and on the rare occasions that it fills completely, is the largest lake in Australia covering an area up to 9,500 km2 (3,668 sq mi). When the lake is full, it has the same salinity level as seawater, but becomes hypersaline as the lake dries up and the water evaporates.
Protected areas of South Australia consists of protected areas located within South Australia and its immediate onshore waters and which are managed by South Australian Government agencies. As of March 2018, South Australia contains 359 separate protected areas declared under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972, the Crown Land Management Act 2009 and the Wilderness Protection Act 1992 which have a total land area of 211,387.48 km2 (81,617.16 sq mi) or 21.5% of the state's area.
Lake Gairdner National Park is a protected area associated with Lake Gairdner in South Australia (Australia), 436 km northwest of Adelaide. It is located just south of the Trans-Australian Railway, Stuart Highway, and the Woomera Prohibited area.
Lake Torrens is a large ephemeral, normally endorheic salt lake in central South Australia. After sufficiently extreme rainfall events, the lake flows out through the Pirie-Torrens corridor to the Spencer Gulf.
Anna Creek Station is the world's largest working cattle station. It is located in the Australian state of South Australia.
Lake Frome / Munda is a large endorheic lake in the Australian state of South Australia located to the east of the Northern Flinders Ranges. It is a large, shallow, unvegetated salt pan, 100 kilometres (62 mi) long and 40 kilometres (25 mi) wide, lying mostly below sea level and having a total surface area of 259,615 hectares. It only rarely fills with brackish water flowing down usually dry creeks in the Northern Flinders Ranges from the west, or exceptional flows down the Strzelecki Creek from the north.
The deserts of Australia or the Australian deserts cover about 2,700,000 km2 (1,000,000 sq mi), or 18% of the Australian mainland, but about 35% of the Australian continent receives so little rain, it is practically desert. Collectively known as the Great Australian desert, they are primarily distributed throughout the Western Plateau and interior lowlands of the country, covering areas from South West Queensland, Far West region of New South Wales, Sunraysia in Victoria and Spencer Gulf in South Australia to the Barkly Tableland in Northern Territory and the Kimberley region in Western Australia.
The Gawler Ranges are a range of stoney hills in South Australia to the north of Eyre Peninsula. The Eyre Highway skirts the south of the ranges. The Gawler Ranges National Park is in the ranges north of Kimba and Wudinna. The ranges are covered by the Gawler Ranges Native Title Claim.
Coorong is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia which is associated with the lagoon known as the Coorong in the south-east of the state and which overlooks the continental coastline from the mouth of the Murray River about 80 kilometres south-east of the state capital of Adelaide to the immediate north of the town of Kingston SE extending for a distance of at least 140 kilometres (87 mi).
Lake Frome National Park, formerly Lake Frome Regional Reserve, is a protected area located in the Australian state of South Australia about 750 kilometres (470 mi) north-east of the state capital of Adelaide, in the Northern Flinders Ranges. It covers the full extent of Lake Frome, an endorheic and ephemeral salt lake. It has an area of 2,582.40 square kilometres (997.07 sq mi).
The North–South Motorway is a partially complete motorway traversing the inner western suburbs of Adelaide from Waterloo Corner in the north to Bedford Park in the south. Progressively constructed in stages since 2010, once complete it will replace the adjacent South Road as Adelaide's main north–south roadway and form the central section of the North–South Corridor, being flanked north and south by the Northern Expressway and Southern Expressway, respectively. It is designated part of route M2.
Lake Newland Conservation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of the town of Elliston. It was proclaimed in 1991 in order to protect Lake Newland, a hypersaline lake, and an associated wetland complex. It lies in the traditional lands of the Wirangu people.
Moonaree Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a sheep station in South Australia.
The Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park—Winaityinaityi Pangkara is a protected area in South Australia established by the South Australian government on the northeast coast of Gulf St Vincent, between Parham in the north and the southern end of Barker Inlet in the south, for the purpose of rehabilitating land used as salt pans, protecting habitat for international migratory shorebirds, managing water quality in adjoining parts of Gulf St Vincent, creation of "green" space, development of niche tourism and creation of opportunities for Indigenous people.
Honiton is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on the south coast of Yorke Peninsula immediately adjoining Investigator Strait about 89 kilometres west of the state capital of Adelaide and about 5 kilometres west of the Edithburgh town centre.
Lake Harris is an endorheic salt lake in the Australian state of South Australia to the north of the Eyre Peninsula located about 530 kilometres (330 mi) northwest of the state capital of Adelaide within the gazetted localities of Lake Harris and Wilgena.
Lake Harris is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located about 530 kilometres north-west of the capital city of Adelaide and which is associated with the lake also known as Lake Harris.
The County of Bosanquet is a cadastral unit in the Australian state of South Australia that covers land both in the north of the Eyre Peninsula and to the peninsula's north. It was proclaimed on 23 October 1913 and was named after Sir Day Hort Bosanquet, the Governor of South Australia from 1909 to 1914.
Aroona Dam is a reservoir in the Australian state of South Australia located in the gazetted locality of Leigh Creek about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) west of the locality’s town centre.
Gawler is an interim Australian bioregion located in South Australia. It has an area of 12,002,883 hectares. Gawler bioregion is part of the Tirari–Sturt stony desert ecoregion.