Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre

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Lore & Background

The lake lies mostly within the traditional lands of the Arabana people, for whom it holds deep spiritual significance in their Dreaming stories. The Dieri people have long ties to the eastern portion. Native title over most of the lake and surrounding region is held by the Arabana people since a Federal Court ruling in 2012, with the eastern portion allocated to the Dieri people. The lake was named by early colonists in honour of Edward John Eyre, the first European to see it in 1840, and was officially renamed in December 2012 to include its Aboriginal name, Kati Thanda, under a dual naming policy. In the 1860s, explorer Peter Egerton-Warburton wrote that the lake was dry, and "terrible in its death-like stillness and the vast expanse of its unbroken sterility." British geologist John Walter Gregory wrote in 1906 that while some called it "a fertile land of lakes," others called it a "desert of the worst type," recognising its importance: "For Lake Eyre, with its coasts and estuaries, was once the living heart of Australia."

In the 1960s, the lake's salt flats were used for land speed record attempts, notably by Donald Campbell with the Bluebird-Proteus CN7. On 17 July 1964, Campbell set a land speed record of 403.10 mph (648.73 km/h) for a four-wheeled vehicle (Class A), though he was disappointed as the vehicle had been designed for 500 mph. The lake is identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area, supporting major breeding events of banded stilts and Australian pelicans when flooded, as well as over 1% of the world populations of red-necked avocets, sharp-tailed sandpipers, red-necked stints, silver gulls, and Caspian terns.

Reader's Guide

Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, one of the largest endorheic systems in the world, stretching across around 15% of the Australian landmass. The lake is divided into two sections joined by the Goyder Channel: Lake Eyre North (144 km long, 65 km wide) and Lake Eyre South (65 by 24 km). The salt crusts are thickest—up to 50 cm—in the southern Belt Bay, Jackboot Bay, and Madigan Gulf sub-basins. The lake was formed by aeolian processes after tectonic upwarping occurred to the south after the end of the Pleistocene. The lake is covered by two protected areas: the Elliot Price Conservation Park (a small area, gazetted November 1967) and the much larger Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre National Park (gazetted October 1985, covering 13,488.37 km²), which surrounds the conservation park on three sides. Restrictions were put on activities including swimming, driving off designated tracks, boating, and landing aircraft. In February 2025, additional restrictions were added due to concerns about environmental damage to the fragile salt crust and surrounding vegetation, and potential danger to visitors—there is rarely enough water to sail a boat, but the Lake Eyre Yacht Club was established in Marree in 2000. Typically a 1.5 m flood occurs every three years, a 4 m flood every decade, and a fill or near fill a few times a century. When over 4 m deep, the lake is no saltier than the sea, but salinity increases as water evaporates, with saturation at about 500 mm depth. The lake takes on a pink hue when saturated due to beta-carotene pigment from the alga Dunaliella salina. Since 1883, proposals like the Bradfield Scheme have been made to flood the lake with seawater, but they have generally been considered impractical due to high evaporation and salt accumulation.

Did You Know?

• The lake has filled completely only three times between 1860 and 2025.
• When saturated, the lake turns pink due to beta-carotene pigment from the alga Dunaliella salina.
• Donald Campbell set a land speed record of 403.10 mph (648.73 km/h) on the lake's salt flats on 17 July 1964.
• The lake's shoreline lies at −9 m (−30 ft), while the deepest parts reach approximately −15 m (−49 ft).
• The salt crust can be up to 50 cm thick in the southern sub-basins of Lake Eyre North.