Lake Amadeus (together with Lake Neale,

Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are vari ...

: ''Pantu'' ("salt lakes")) is a large

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 southwest corner of

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, about north of

Uluru Uluru (; pjt, Uluṟu ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially Gazette#Gazette as a verb, gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone geological formation, formation in the centre of Australia. It is in the southern part of the ...

. The smaller Lake Neale is adjacent to the northwest. It is part of (or a surface feature of) the

Amadeus Basin The Amadeus Basin is a large (~170,000 km2) intracratonic sedimentary basin in central Australia, lying mostly within the southern Northern Territory, but extending into the state of Western Australia. Origins The Amadeus Basin is named ...

that was filled with the erosion products of the

Petermann Orogeny The Petermann Orogeny was an Australian intracontinental event that affected basement rocks of the northern Musgrave Province and Ediacaran ( Proterozoic) sediments of the (now) southern Amadeus Basin between ~550-535 Ma. The remains are seen to ...

Physical features

Due to the aridity of the area, the surface of Lake Amadeus is usually a dry salt crust. In times of sufficient rainfall, it is part of an east-flowing drainage system that eventually connects to the

Finke River The Finke River, or ''Larapinta'' (Arrernte), is a river in central Australia, one of four main rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin and thought to be the oldest riverbed in the world. It flows for only a few days a year and when this happens, its wate ...

. Lake Amadeus is long and wide, making it the largest salt lake in the Northern Territory. Lake Amadeus contains up to 600 million tonnes of salt; however, harvesting it has not proved viable, owing to its remote location.

History

Lake Amadeus is on Aboriginal land, and is covered by the Katiti and

Petermann Aboriginal Land Trust Petermann may refer to: Places Antarctica * Petermann Island *Petermann Ranges (Antarctica) Australia * Petermann, Northern Territory, a locality *Petermann Orogeny, a geological feature *Petermann Ranges (Australia) Greenland *Petermann Glaci ...

s. The first European to arrive at the lake, the explorer

Ernest Giles William Ernest Powell Giles (20 July 1835 – 13 November 1897), best known as Ernest Giles, was an Australian explorer who led five major expeditions to parts of South Australia and Western Australia. Early life Ernest Giles was born in Bris ...

, encountered it in 1872. Giles originally intended to honour his benefactor Baron

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

with the eponym ''Lake Ferdinand''. However, Mueller prevailed upon Giles to instead honour King Amadeo I of Spain (reigned 1870–1873, known in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

as King Amadeus I), who had previously bestowed honour on him. The lake's expanse proved a barrier for Giles, who could see both

and

Kata Tjuta Kata Tjuṯa / The Olgas (Pitjantjatjara: , lit. 'many heads'; ) is a group of large, domed rock formations or bornhardts located about southwest of Alice Springs, in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. Uluṟu / Aye ...

but could not reach them as the dry lake bed was not able to support the weight of his horses. The next year, William Gosse climbed and named both rises.

Mythology

Legend describes how ''pantu'' was created by ''wanampi'' (water snake). As described by late Anangu elder Paddy Uluru, "wanampi had dug out the ground with a stick to form a lake, drew concentric circles in the land".Hill, B 1994 The Rock: Travelling to Uluru, St Leonards: Rathdowne, 136

References

{{Authority control

Amadeus Amadeus may refer to: *Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), prolific and influential composer of classical music *Amadeus (name), a given name and people with the name * ''Amadeus'' (play), 1979 stage play by Peter Shaffer * ''Amadeus'' (film), ...

Physical features

History

Mythology

See also

References