Lake Buchanan is a flat

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). ...

at Pentland in

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

, Australia. It is approximately 28 km long and 8 km wide at its widest point, with a surface area of about 117 km². It is part of the Thomson River catchment and part of the

Desert Uplands The Desert Uplands is an interim Australian bioregion located in north and central western Queensland which straddles the Great Dividing Range between Blackall and Pentland. Geography The bioregion contains Lake Galilee, Lake Dunn and Lake ...

bioregion. Lake Buchanan is different from all other salt lakes in Australia because it occurs at a high elevation - on the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

. The lake is shallow and the water tends to be brackish.(5 April 2011)
Site Investment Guide: Lake Buchanan
. Australian Government Land and Coasts. Retrieved on 12 July 2011. The land around the lake is used for grazing. Lake Buchanan contains a number of significant species which are newly discovered and most probably endemic. These include the Lake Buchanan button grass, fringing rush, Lake Buchanan fringe rush, ''Lawrenica buchananensis'' (Malvaceae), and Buchanan's fairy shrimp. The Lake Buchanan blue bush is a threatened species belonging to the genus ''

Chenopodium ''Chenopodium'' is a genus of numerous species of perennial or annual herbaceous flowering plants known as the goosefoots, which occur almost anywhere in the world. It is placed in the family Amaranthaceae in the APG II system; older classifica ...

''.

References

Lakes of Queensland Saline lakes of Australia North Queensland {{NorthQueensland-geo-stub

See also

References