Lake Macdonald (

Pintupi The Pintupi are an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose traditional land is in the area west of Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved (or were moved) into the ...

: Karrkurutinyja) is an ephemeral lake that straddles the border between

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 ...

and the

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 ...

. It lies south of

Lake Mackay Lake Mackay, known as Wilkinkarra to the Indigenous Pintupi people, is the largest of hundreds of ephemeral salt lakes scattered throughout the Pilbara and northern parts of the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia and the Norther ...

, and south-west of

Kintore, Northern Territory Kintore (Pintupi: ''Walungurru'') is a remote settlement in the Kintore Range of the Northern Territory of Australia about west of Alice Springs and from the border with Western Australia. It is also known as Walungurru, Walangkura, and Walang ...

. Lying in country inhabited by Indigenous Australians for many thousands of years, it was first visited by Europeans in 1889, as part of an expedition supported by the

Royal Geographical Society of South Australia On 22 June 1883, the Geographical Society of Australasia started at a meeting in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. A branch was formed in Victoria in the same year. In July 1885, both the Queensland and the South Australian branches started. In ...

. The expedition was led by

William Tietkens William Harry Tietkens (30 August 1844 – 19 April 1933), known as "Harry Tietkens", explorer and naturalist, was born in England and emigrated to Australia in 1859. Tietkens was second in command to Ernest Giles on expeditions to Central Au ...

; its activities included the first known photographs taken 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 lake is named after the secretary of the Victorian branch of the Geographical Society at that time. The area has been investigated for the mining of

potash Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.

. The lake marks the southern boundary of the

Kiwirrkurra Indigenous Protected Area Kiwirrkurra, gazetted as Kiwirrkurra Community, is a small community in Western Australia in the Gibson Desert, east of Port Hedland and west of Alice Springs. It had a population of 165 in 2016, mostly Aboriginal Australians.Australian Burea ...

. The land around Karrkurutinyja was the birthplace of

contemporary Indigenous Australian art Contemporary Indigenous Australian art (also known as contemporary Aboriginal Australian art) is the modern art work produced by Indigenous Australians, that is, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. It is generally regarded a ...

ists including Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungarrayi, Shorty Lungkarta Tjungurrayi and Narputta Nangala, mother of

Daisy Jugadai Napaltjarri Daisy Jugadai Napaltjarri (c. 1955–2008) was a Pintupi language, Pintupi-Luritja-speaking Indigenous Australian, Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert cultural bloc, Western Desert region, and sister of artist Molly Jugadai Napalt ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald Lakes of Goldfields-Esperance (Western Australia) Saline lakes of the Northern Territory

See also

References