Lake Austin is an ephemeral

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). ...

located in the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

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 ...

, approximately south of Cue and north of

Mount Magnet Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

. It is named after Robert Austin, who explored the area around the lake in 1854. The abandoned town of

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

is located on an island in the lake. The

Great Northern Highway Great Northern Highway is an Australian highway that links Western Australia's capital city Perth with its northernmost port, Wyndham. With a length of almost , it is the longest highway in Australia, with the majority included as part of the ...

passes through this island as it crosses the lake. Lake Austin is also the name of the locality surrounding it. Lake Austin is an evaporation basin for an arheic internal drainage system covering an area of . The lake itself lies in a basin covering , or excluding the many islands. It is about long and wide. The lake usually fills in response to heavy rainfall in the summer and autumn; anecdotally, this occurs twice about every ten years. Water

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...

varies according to lake levels: recorded values have ranged from 44.8 mS/cm during a flooding event in 2000, to 164 mS/cm in the late 1970s. The lake bed is flat, variably crusted with salt, and devoid of vegetation. It is surrounded by a

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

dominated by the

samphire Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies. *Rock samphire, ''Crithmum maritimum'' is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Unit ...

species '' Tecticornia fimbrata'', ''

Tecticornia halocnemoides ''Tecticornia halocnemoides'', commonly known as shrubby samphire or grey glasswort,* is a species of succulent plant, succulent, halophyte, salt tolerant plant endemic to Australia. It grows as a spreading or erect shrub up to fifty centimetre ...

'' and '' Tecticornia pruinosa''. The catchment area is composed of gently undulating saline stony plains with associated internal drainage lines and several scattered drainage foci. The lake is situated on major ancient drainage lines and has massive supplies of saline water from sand aquifers at the base of the paleochannels from depths of . Annually the catchment receives rainfall of and has an evaporation rate . The main land uses around Lake Austin are mining and pastoralism. A large deposit of

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...

sand is located on the edge of the lake. From 1999 to 2002, hypersaline groundwater from the Cuddingwarra gold mine was discharged into Lake Austin. The Austin Downs

pastoral station A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

covers part of the lake. Sheep are grazed in the area and feral goats and donkeys are abundant.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Lake Lakes of the Mid West (Western Australia) Saline lakes of Western Australia

See also

References