Dumbleyung Lake, also widely known as Lake Dumbleyung, is a

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). ...

in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The lake has a length of and a width of ; it covers a total area of .

Description

The traditional owners of the area are the Noongar peoples. The lake is part of a dreaming trail that extends from the south coast near Augusta to the Great Victoria Desert country to the north east. Other features along the trail include

Mulka's Cave The Humps is a granite rock formation known as a "stepped bornhardt inselberg". It is located within The Humps Nature Reserve approximately east of Perth and north east of Hyden, Western Australia, Hyden in the eastern Wheatbelt (Western Au ...

Wave Rock Wave Rock ( nys, Katter Kich) is a natural rock formation that is shaped like a tall breaking ocean wave. The "wave" is about high and around long. It forms the north side of a solitary hill, which is known as "Hyden Rock". This hill, which ...

, Jilakin Rock, Jitarning Rock and Puntapin Rock. The explorers

Henry Landor Henry Landor (1815 – 6 January 1877) was the first medical superintendent of the Asylum For The Insane, London, Ontario, which was built to his specifications. He was one of those at the forefront in North America of the movement for moral trea ...

and

Henry Maxwell Lefroy Henry Maxwell Lefroy (August 1818 – 18 July 1879) was a prominent explorer of the Mid West and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia. He was the son of Rev. John Henry George Lefroy, the rector of Compton and Ashe, who died when h ...

are usually credited with the discovery of Dumbleyung Lake, although it appears to have been shown on a map in 1839 with the name ''Kondening Lake''. Grazing leases around the lake were first granted to George Kersley in 1875. Dumbleyung Lake received world recognition when Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record on it on 31 December 1964, travelling at 444.66 km/h (276.3 mph) in his boat '' Bluebird K7''. A granite memorial to Campbell can be seen at Pussy Cat Hill, a prominent feature and vantage point to view the entire lake area. In recent times, the increased soil salination has made the area unsuitable for grazing. Today the lake is mainly used for aquatic recreation. Despite the extreme salinity of the lake, it provides a habitat for many varieties of water birds, and since 1963 has been protected by the Dumbleyung Lake Nature Reserve. The lake is recognised as a DIWA wetland as it is a drought refuge for waterbirds and a moulting area for the Australian shelduck. It is one of the five sites in the Avon-Wheatbelt area.

References

{{reflist Lakes of the Great Southern (Western Australia) Nature reserves in Western Australia DIWA-listed wetlands Dumbleyung, Lake

Description

See also

References