Lake Frome / Munda is a large

endorheic An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in the

Australian state The states and territories are federated administrative divisions in Australia, ruled by regional governments that constitute the second level of governance between the federal government and local governments. States are self-governing ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, 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 o ...

to the east of 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 inhabit ...

. It is a large, shallow, unvegetated salt pan, long and wide, lying mostly below

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...

and having a total surface area of . It only rarely fills with brackish water flowing down usually dry creeks in the Northern Flinders Ranges from the west, or exceptional flows down the Strzelecki Creek from the north. The

Adnyamathanha The Adnyamathanha (Pronounced: ) are a contemporary Aboriginal Australian people of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia, formed as an aggregate of several distinct peoples. Strictly speaking the ethnonym Adnyamathanha was an alternativ ...

name for the lake is ''Munda''. Europeans named the lake ''Frome'' after

Edward Charles Frome General Edward Charles Frome (7 January 1802 – 2 November 1890) was a prominent British Army officer and Surveyor General of South Australia. Early life Born in Gibraltar on 7 January 1802, Frome was orphaned early in his life. He was educated ...

, after he mapped the area in 1843. The lake was officially dual named Lake Frome / Munda in 2004.

Description

The lake adjoins Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park to its west and lies adjacent to

Lake Callabonna Lake Callabonna is a dry salt lake with little to no vegetation located in the Far North region of South Australia. The lake is situated approximately southwest of Cameron Corner, the junction of South Australia, Queensland and New South Wa ...

linked by Salt Creek to its north, the southern

Strzelecki Desert The Strzelecki Desert is located in the Far North Region of South Australia, South West Queensland and western New South Wales. It is positioned in the northeast of the Lake Eyre Basin, and north of the Flinders Ranges. Two other deserts occup ...

to its east, and the Frome Downs

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Australia Pastoral lease ...

to its south. The ancient Lake Mega-Frome (Lakes Frome, Blanche, Callabonna and Gregory) was last connected to

Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains ...

50–47 thousand years ago. The region in which it is situated has little rainfall and is very sparsely settled, with the closest settlement to it being Arkaroola Village some north-west of its closest shore. Public road access to the lake is limited to a single, rough

four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer ca ...

track which commences from the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park headquarters at Balcanoona (Virlkundhunha) station west. The route to Lake Frome traverses flat, stony terrain following Balcanoona Creek through the only completely protected arid catchment in Australia. After crossing both the Moomba-Adelaide

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...

pipeline and the dingo fence the track passes over low sand

dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

before arriving at the western shore of the lake. The protected area through which this access track travels is declared a Cultural Use zone for hunting by the local

Aboriginal people between 3.00 pm and 5.00 am; during this period public access is prohibited. Munda forms part of the local Dreaming story told by the

people explaining how the region's geology and species originated. According to this Dreaming story, Munda was emptied of its water by the

Rainbow Serpent The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many different Aboriginal peoples. It is a common motif in the art and religion ...

Akurra when he ventured down Arkaroola Creek (which flows onto Munda) to drink. Due to its

Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his co ...

significance the Adnyamathanha do not venture onto the lake's surface.

Protected area status

Due to its "regional geological significance" the full extent of the lake was proclaimed as the Lake Frome Regional Reserve in 1991. On 26 November 2021, the reserve's status was upgraded to a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

in recognition of its significance as a large salt lake, becoming

Lake Frome National Park Lake Frome National Park, formerly Lake Frome Regional Reserve, is a protected area located in the Australian state of South Australia about north-east of the state capital of Adelaide, in the Northern Flinders Ranges. It covers the full ext ...

and giving it the same status as other large salt lakes such as Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre,

Lake Torrens Lake Torrens ( Kuyani: ''Ngarndamukia'') is a large ephemeral, normally endorheic salt lake in central South Australia. After sufficiently extreme rainfall events, the lake flows out through the Pirie-Torrens corridor to the Spencer Gulf. Is ...

and

Lake Gairdner Lake Gairdner is a large endorheic salt lake in the Australia, Australian state of South Australia, to the north of the Eyre Peninsula. When in flood, the lake is considered the third largest salt lake in Australia. Description Lake Gairdner i ...

Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under
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licence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frome Saline lakes of South Australia Far North (South Australia)

Description

Protected area status

See also

References