Culham Inlet is an

inlet An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine geogra ...

located in the Goldfields-Esperance region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The inlet is also referred to as a coastal

salt lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...

or a transient estuary, as the sand bar that prevents it discharging is almost always closed. The wetlands formed by the system are DIWA listed due to their ecological significance. The inlet is located on the eastern flank of

East Mount Barren East Mount Barren is a quartzite peak of the Barren Range in Fitzgerald River National Park. It was sighted and named by explorer Matthew Flinders on 6 January 1802, together with two other peaks in the range, West Mount Barren and Middle Moun ...

in the

Fitzgerald River National Park Fitzgerald River National Park is a national park in the Shires of Ravensthorpe and the Jerramungup in Western Australia, southeast of Perth. The park is recognised on Australia's National Heritage List for its outstanding diversity of native ...

and is approximately west of Hopetoun. The inlet is a wave dominated

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

with a degraded catchment, that is a result of substantial clearing and a saline run-off. It covers a total area of . The lagoon area is shallow with a typical maximum depth of with a record depth of recorded after exceptional rainfall. Two rivers discharge into the inlet, the Phillips and the Steere. The inlet is separated from the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

by a bar of dunes between to wide. The dunes are breached intermittently, breaking naturally in 1849, 1872, 1919, 1993 and 2000 and artificially in 1920, each time for a period of 3 to 4 weeks. The inlet was a river valley prior to 6,500 years ago when a rise in sea levels caused the valley to flood, it would have remained an open estuary until 3,500 years ago when the sand bar at the entrance built up to such a degree that discharge into the ocean was prevented. Then further dune building occurred so that breaks became less frequent. The area periodically supports a large array of flora and fauna. It is used as a commercial fishery and supplied large catches of

Black Bream Black bream may refer to one of several fish species: * Black drummer, ''Girella elevata'' * Black seabream, ''Spondyliosoma cantharus'', a silvery fish found in northern Europe and the Mediterranean * Galjoen, ''Dichistius capensis'', the nationa ...

. The waters also support populations of smaller endemic species such as

Goby Goby is a common name for many species of small to medium sized ray-finned fish, normally with large heads and tapered bodies, which are found in marine, brackish and freshwater environments. Traditionally most of the species called gobies have b ...

and two Hardyheads. A large population of waterbirds is also found in the area with up to 25 species being recorded in the inlet. The inlet was named by

John Septimus Roe John Septimus Roe (8 May 1797 – 28 May 1878) was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, a member of Western Australia's legislative and executive councils for nearly 40 years, but also a participant in t ...

, who named the inlet in 1848 after the Toodyay homestead of his son in law, Samuel Pole Phillips.

References

{{coord, 33, 54, 29, S, 120, 04, 07, E, region:AU-WA_type:waterbody, display=title Goldfields-Esperance Estuaries of Western Australia Inlets of Western Australia Former rivers South coast of Western Australia