Lake Callabonna is a dry

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). ...

with little to no

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic character ...

located in the Far North region of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. The lake is situated approximately southwest of Cameron Corner, the junction of South Australia,

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. It is also known as Lake Mulligan. The lake is an important site for late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s. It is within the extent of the Strzelecki Desert Lakes Important Bird Area, identified as such by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because of its importance for

waterbird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

s when holding water in the aftermath of floods.

History

The first pastoralists in the area were the Ragless brothers in 1881, who moved there from the northern

Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabi ...

, opening a sheep-run. The station owner in 1892, F. B. Ragless, was shown a number of giant skeletons embedded in the dry surface of the lake, discovered two days before by an Aboriginal station hand named Jackie Nolan. The South Australian Museum sent a worker, H. Hurst, to investigate the site and four months later the results were delivered to the museum. After examination of the skeletons an expedition funded by Sir

Thomas Elder Sir Thomas Elder, (5 August 1818 – 6 March 1897), was a Scottish-Australian pastoralist, highly successful businessman, philanthropist, politician, race-horse owner and breeder, and public figure. Amongst many other things, he is notable fo ...

and E. C. Stirling, director of the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultu ...

, was organised and Hurst led the team back to the site before being dismissed. After several visits, Stirling and A. H. C. Zietz collected a large number of

diprotodon ''Diprotodon'' (Ancient Greek: "two protruding front teeth") is an extinct genus of marsupial from the Pleistocene of Australia, containing one species, ''D. optatum''. The earliest finds date to 1.77 million to 780,000 years ago, but most speci ...

and

dromornithidae Dromornithidae, known as mihirungs and informally as thunder birds or demon ducks, were a clade of large, flightless Australian birds of the Oligocene through Pleistocene Epochs. All are now extinct. They were long classified in Struthioniform ...

skeletons. The area was designated a Fossil Reserve in 1901, and access is restricted.

Protected area status

Strzelecki Regional Reserve

The northern end of Lake Callabonna is within the boundary of the Strzelecki Regional Reserve.

Lake Callabonna Fossil Reserve

Lake Callabonna is the location of a site where the “articulated skeletons of

Diprotodon ''Diprotodon'' (Ancient Greek: "two protruding front teeth") is an extinct genus of marsupial from the Pleistocene of Australia, containing one species, ''D. optatum''. The earliest finds date to 1.77 million to 780,000 years ago, but most speci ...

,” an extinct genus of

marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a po ...

, were found in the late 19th century by the

. The site is considered to have “a very high palaeontological significance.” A fossil reserve was dedicated in 1901 under state law which currently in force as of 2002 as the ''Crown Lands Act 1929'' with administrative responsibility lying with the South Australian Museum. In 2002, it pointed out that the lake received “negligible management effort as a Fossil Reserve under the ''Crown Lands Act 1929''” and that proclamation under the ''National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972'' may provide a higher level of protection against “degradation arising from uncontrolled access.” It was listed on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

on 13 February 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lake Callabonna Callabonna Pleistocene paleontological sites of Australia Salt flats of Australia Far North (South Australia) Fossil parks in Australia South Australian Heritage Register

History

Protected area status

Strzelecki Regional Reserve

Lake Callabonna Fossil Reserve

See also

References