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 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 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 The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

peoples. The lake is part of a dreaming trail that extends from the south coast near Augusta to the

Great Victoria Desert The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explorer Ernest Giles became the first European to cross th ...

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 Wind wave, 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 ...

Jilakin Rock Jilakin Rock is a granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that sl ...

, Jitarning Rock and

Puntapin Rock Puntapin Rock is a granite rock formation located approximately south east of Wagin, Western Australia, Wagin and approximately west of Dumbleyung, Western Australia, Dumbleyung in the western Wheatbelt (Western Australia), Wheatbelt region ...

. 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 Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

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 ''Bluebird K7'' is a jet engined hydroplane which Britain's Donald Campbell set seven world water speed records between 1955 and 1967. ''K7'' was the first successful jet-powered hydroplane, and was considered revolutionary when launched i ...

''. 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 Soil salinity is the salt content in the soil; the process of increasing the salt content is known as salinization. Salts occur naturally within soils and water. Salination can be caused by natural processes such as mineral weathering or by the ...

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 A drought refuge is a site that provides permanent fresh water or moist conditions for plants and animals, acting as a refuge habitat when surrounding areas are affected by drought and allowing ecosystems and core species populations to survive unt ...

for waterbirds and a

moult In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body (often, but not always, an outer ...

ing area for the

Australian shelduck The Australian shelduck (''Tadorna tadornoides''), also known as the chestnut-breasted shelduck or mountain duck, is a shelduck, a group of large goose-like ducks part of the bird family Anatidae. The genus name ''Tadorna'' comes from Celtic root ...

. 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