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 liter). I ...

in the Great Southern region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. The lake has a length of and a width of ; it covers a total area of .

Description

The

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

of the area are the

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the South West, Western Australia, south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton, Western Aus ...

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 Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explore ...

country to the north east. Other features along the trail include Mulka's Cave,

Wave Rock Wave Rock () is a natural rock formation that is shaped like a tall breaking 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 hill, which is a granite ins ...

, Jilakin Rock, Jitarning Rock and Puntapin Rock. The explorers Henry Landor 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 ...

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 Malcolm Campbell, (23 March 1921 – 4 January 1967) was a British speed record breaker who broke eight absolute world speed records on water and on land in the 1950s and 1960s. He remains the only person to set both world land a ...

broke the world

water speed record The world unlimited water speed record is the officially recognised fastest speed achieved by a water-borne vehicle, irrespective of propulsion method. The current unlimited record is , achieved by Australian Ken Warby in the ''Spirit of Austra ...

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 (boat), hydroplane in 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 revoluti ...

''. 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 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 nature reserve was gazetted on 15 March 1963, has a size of , and is located within the

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low rel ...

bioregion, but does not cover the entire lake. The lake is recognised as a DIWA wetland as it is a drought refuge 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 a process by which an animal casts off parts of its body to serve some beneficial purpose, either at ...

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 ...

. 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