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The Lake Eyre Enigma

Posted by Outback Spirit

on 14 Jun 2023

South Australia’s Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre is a beautiful outback enigma. Not only is it one of the world’s largest salt lakes, it is also Australia’s largest inland lake, and the lowest point of Australia. To put that into numbers, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre covers an area of around 9,500 square kilometres, comprises 400 million tonnes of salt, and sits 15 metres below sea level.

Sitting 647 kilometres north of Adelaide, Lake Eyre is actually two lakes: Lake Eyre North and Lake Eyre South. The lakes are connected by the 15-kilometre-long Goyder Channel. The salt content here is extreme – approximately ten times that of standard sea water and double the density of the Dead Sea.

None of these numbers alone, though, are the reason Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre captures the imagination.

The magic of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre is in the water. This is one of the driest places in Australia, often an arid salt pan, yet every now and then, when the weather gods play their cards right, the lake floods, transforming the landscape. On average, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre experiences a small (1.5m) flood every three years and a large (4m) flood every 10 years, filling entirely an average of only four times each century.

Without water, the shimmering salt pan is a spectacular sight. With water, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre is mesmerising. In flood, it’s not just human visitors that find this part of the country beguiling. The lake attracts roughly six million birds, from pel­i­cans, to sil­ver gulls, red-necked avo­cets, band­ed stilts and gull-billed terns. It becomes a breed­ing site, teem­ing with species that are tol­er­ant to salinity. These feathered friends feed on the aquatic bounty that also makes its way here – frogs, yabbies, a plethora of fish and brine shrimp ­– the latter contributing to the sometimes-pink hue of the lake’s water.

In flood, the lake takes on a somewhat mystical air, although Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre has long been an important site for Arabunna and other Aboriginal people, year-round. To this day, the lake is considered to be a significant cultural site. Despite its status as one of the driest places in Australia, the waterways and mound springs also encouraged European settlement in the 1860s, with pastoralists establishing cattle stations, many of which were abandoned during times of drought. The largest cattle station in Australia, Anna Creek, remains, located on the south-eastern side of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre.

It may be hard to believe, but there’s even a yacht club. Lake Eyre yacht club has its clubhouse and headquarters in Marree, where its members gather and patiently monitor the lake for sailing opportunities. The main tributaries into the lake are the rivers in south-west Queensland, the Diamantina and Georgina river systems and Cooper Creek, but water levels in these waterways don’t guarantee a flood. High evaporation rates and the many channels along the way make it hard to predict whether the flow will reach its final destination. As an example, after severe floods in 1990, Cooper Creek reached the lake for the first time in more than 20 years. It took another 20 years until it made it there again. 

How much water is in the lakes can only be judged with any degree of accuracy from the air via satellite imagery. Once the water appears, it’s the visitors turn to take to the air, the lake’s extraordinary expanse best viewed via a scenic flight. With Outback Spirit, you can explore this spectacular region from air over 7 days, on Outback Spirit's Lake Eyre & Wilpena Pound adventure.

Click here for more information on Outback Spirit's  Lake Eyre & Wilpena Pound Adventure.

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Seeing Lake Eyre - the where, what, when and how

22 May 2024

The often dry Lake Eyre is an outback enigma, famous for its rare and beautiful floodscapes. A scenic flight over Australia’s largest salt lake is near the top of the outback bucket list so here is everything you need to know: where and when to go, how to get there and just what you’ll see on a scenic flight – wet or dry.

The classic lake eyre scenic flight.

A scenic flight in a small plane is the easiest and best way to truly understand the vast expanse of Lake Eyre (known as Kati Thanda to traditional owners, the Arabana people). There are plenty of companies willing to fly you from further afield, but some of the best ‘local’ scenic flight operators include:

• Wrightsair – from William Creek

• Chinta Air – from Ceduna and Rawnsley Park (Flinders Ranges)

• Bush Pilots Australia from Marree and Hawker (Flinders Ranges)

• Air Wilpena (Flinders Ranges)

For more of a splash-out, you can always include it on your 10-day, around-Australia air safari itinerary. See: Is this Australia’s Greatest Air Adventure?

What are the chances of seeing the lake in flood?

There is a common myth that Lake Eyre is entirely dry except for when the big floods happen, like those of 2010/11. While Eyre has only reached capacity three times in the past century, there is often some water somewhere with the 9,690-square-kilometre basin.

In 2010 and 2011 the lake’s depth maxed out at 2.2 metres, enough water to fill up its central areas such as Belt Bay. The last time it was considered ‘full’ was way back in 1974 – at a depth of around 6 metres.

“Around one in ten years you can expect the big days,” says Trevor Wright, whose company Wrightsair has been taking passengers up over the lake since the early ’90s from the nearby town of William Creek. “You might get a run for a couple of years [of a lot of water] and then go a decade without much. Then it becomes a great, white expanse of reflecting salt as opposed to the magical colours.”

All the colours of Lake Eyre (photo: Elise Hassey).

Felicity Brown, chief pilot for Chinta Air, which operates scenic flights from Ceduna and the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, reckons the lake has some water in it about half the time she flies over.

For the lake to truly fill up local rain is important (within 150 to 200 kilometres), but for a big year you also need a torrent from further afield; ideally monsoon rains and perhaps a follow-up cyclone in northern Australia that will get the rivers flowing into Lake Eyre North.

Is it worth flying over when it’s dry?

Yes, yes and yes. It’s an entirely different experience from the intense rainbow of the flooded lake.

“When there’s no water, especially early in the morning or late in the evening, the lake is sort of like Uluru in that it dramatically changes colour,” says Trevor Wright. “At certain times of day, with the very soft light, the white underneath turns a bluish colour, like the sea. Then the peninsulas come out, like continents, so it feels like you’re flying across the world.”

Green channels, Macumba River, Lake Eyre.

“It’s pretty spectacular at any time,” agrees Felicity Brown. “The sheer expanse of the lake is the thing that strikes everyone who flies over it – water or not.

“If it’s dry, you get this glimmering white salt pan stretching out off into the distance or if it’s rained, the water stretches off to the horizon, looking like the inland sea that I’m sure some of the early explorers thought it was.”

Highlights – what’s to see?

When the rains and monsoon waters align, the outback in and around Lake Eyre comes to life, attracting fish and birdlife en masse. If you’re lucky, you’ll also catch an eyeful of the famous pink hue off the lake, caused by a micro algae known as dunaliella salina, common in salt water and other pink lakes of Australia.

“The best part of a flight over Lake Eyre is flying over the creeks and the waterways leading into the lake – that’s where you’ll see the most birdlife,” says Felicity Brown. “Things like pelicans (in a big year) and all sorts, like banded stilts and wrens, plus plenty of the usual outback birds, like crows and galahs.”

One of the most popular routes for scenic flights is to head up the Warburton Groove and Warburton River and come back down the Birdsville Track (you may need to take an extended flight to reach this area, depending on where you take off from). There’s plenty to see on Eyre’s periphery too.

Looking up Warburton Groove (Kati Thanda) Lake Eyre North.

“My highlights are the huge erosion on the dunes at the north end of the lake in the Tirari Desert,” says Trevor Wright. “The diversity of coloured sandstone is amazing.”

Can I drive to Lake Eyre?

Yes. Lake Eyre’s two hubs are the tiny towns of Marree (95 kilometres south) and William Creek (60 kilometres south-east), where you can arrange scenic flights.

At William Creek (at the centre of Australia’s largest cattle station, Anna Creek) there is a hotel, garage, restaurant (when it’s busy) and a caravan park with en-suite rooms and camping. It is on the Oodnadatta Track and offers easy access to the lowest point in the lake (and in Australia), which is 15 metres below sea level. William Creek can be accessed via Coober Pedy (170 kilometres) by the unsealed William Creek Road (okay for 2WD when it’s dry).

Marree is more accessible from the Flinders Ranges side, and is the starting point of the Birdsville Track (685 kilometres north of Adelaide). There is accommodation, fuel and, of course, a pub here. It’s possible to drive to Marree from the Flinders only passing a couple of short stretches of gravel.

Silcrete Island, Belt Bay, near the lowest point in Australia (on Lake Eyre). photo: Wrightsair.

Note: Obviously a 4WD is preferable for both these journeys, especially if you want to drive to the lake’s edge (no driving on the lake). The public access routes (pastoral tracks) are suitable for 4WDs only. Plan well ahead if you’re planning a summer trip out this way (fuel, water, food, extra spares etc) because the temperature can head into the 50s (yes, 50s) between November to March.

Strange, strange lake indeed

In the big deserted patch of outback Australia, strange, strange things can happen.

“From time to time you see unidentified flying objects around the lake because you’re in a really remote area,” says Trevor Wright. “It gets really dark at night and tends to accentuate anything that’s moving through the area.

“About five or six times a year, in the right weather conditions, you can also get a salt fog over the lake. So up to about 100 metres it’s like being in a thick impenetrable fog, but it’s actually salt. It’s spooky.”

When there’s water in the lake, flying over it can bring its own challenges too.

“You have to be really on your guard when it’s overcast and it’s a blanketed dark sky,” says Wright. “You can lose your horizon, and the water will blend into the horizon – it’s just one big expanse. You can also lose your depth perception. But you just use your instruments so it’s still safe.”

There’s even a Lake Eyre Yacht Club

Bob Backway founded the Lake Eyre Yacht Club (LEYC) in 2000. There are 230 members, from all over Australia, and even one from Texas.

The Marree-based club holds a regatta that can include 100 people, like back in 2010 when “for the first time in 20 years Cooper Creek made it to Lake Eyre,” according to Commodore Bob, who says he sails on Eyre in some capacity about every two years.

People first started sailing there in earnest during the big floods of 1974. And when this part of the outback is in flood, the sailors go crazy.

Desert River from Peter Elfes’ The Green Desert.

“In a good year there are hundreds of other lakes, and a couple of thousand kilometres of temporary rivers, some as big as the Murray, in the desert and it’s sort of a competition to find a new lake and sail in it,” says Bob. “You can go out over the horizon so when you run aground you stand up and can’t see anything but water and you have to use your compass to get back.”

The facts: Eyre by numbers

• Is 144 kilometres long and 77 kilometres wide (Lake Eyre North). Lake Eyre South is 64 kilometres long east-west and 24 kilometres wide

• Is Australia’s lowest point (15 metres below sea level) and its drainage basin covers 15 per cent of the continent. The two lakes are joined by the 15 kilometre-long Goyder Channel

• Is Australia’s largest salt lake and the 13th largest lake in the world

• Is located in northern South Australia but its catchment area extends to New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory.

• Eyre hosted the 1964 world land-speed record by Sir Donald Campbell, in the Bluebird (710 kilometres per hour).

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Comments (4)

Water is flowing through the Diamantina, Cooper, Warburton rivers into the lake basin Does this mean that there will be water in the lake areas throughout 2016? When do you expect the lakes to reach maximum levels from the current water flows? I’m planning a trip but could be later in the year Thanks Tony

What’s the best time go to Lake eyre, if i want to see it look like a mirror?!

There’s no ‘best time’ of year as such because the weather in that part of the outback is very difficult to predict. There’s a usually some water in the lake but it rarely fills. Keep on eye on the rainfall (not just out at the lake but in the surrounding catchment) to see if it’s worth going at any given time. bom.gov.au (Bureau of Meteorology) and the Lake Eyre Yacht Club sites are good places to start. Best of luck in your Eyre quest and let us know how it goes.

I’m in Adelaide where my work contract is shortly over and have to drive home to the Gold Coast. Looking forward to the visit of Lake Eyre on my long journey home, I’m sure a real once in a lifetime event. Regards Alan Venus.

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Lake Eyre Yacht Club.

Lake Eyre Yacht Club planning first regatta in four years as rain falls

A yacht club in the desert in one of the most remote locations on earth is planning its first regatta in four years – but only if there’s enough water.

The Lake Eyre Yacht Club in South Australia sits on the shores of the continent’s largest lake and the thirteenth biggest inland body of water in the world.

It is also dry most of the time and only completely fills about four times each century – the last time being 1974.

But seasonal rains are beginning to arrive in Lake Eyre after flowing to the salt lake through a network of rivers that drain into a basin covering a sixth of Australia – about the size of Spain.

Lake Eyre Yacht Club Commodore Bob Backway said boats had not been on the main lake since 2011 but the recent rains had members excited.

“This rain has primed all the Queensland rivers, which is great. If we have what is considered another rain event in the first half of February then it would be fantastic,” Backway said.

“We’ll probably get boats out on the water in March because this time of year it’s just too hot.

“But we’re hoping that this follow-up rain will bring a proper flood down from Queensland.”

“We’re very excited about it. Everybody’s waking up in the membership and thinking about what to do this year but we’re all praying for follow up rain … if we get the rain it will be our best season since 2011.”

The club, located about 700km north of the South Australian capital city Adelaide, has 220 members from all over Australia and even some from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.

It stores 10 boats in sheds at the club but the majority of members bring their yachts on trailers by road.

The closest community to Lake Eyre, William Creek , is 60km away and has a permanent population of six.

Backway said the club was planning a regatta in April on a lake in the area but probably not Lake Eyre itself. He said smaller lakes had more suitable camping grounds and were safer.

The last regatta hosted by the club was in 2012, on Lake Killamperpunna about 120km east of Lake Eyre. It attracted 42 boats and was held over six days across two divisions and included multiple classes.

“We typically have about 35 yachts and 120 people. We don’t like it to get much larger than that because it becomes unmanageable in such a remote area,” he said.

Backway said some members also cruised their yachts through the Simpson Desert on the Warburton River and Kallakoopah Creek – part of the network that feeds Lake Eyre – when there was enough water.

“I’m hoping to have the opportunity to get at least one river adventure in this year. The best river adventure we’ve had so far has been 750km over 23 days.

“On the rivers the scenery changes daily, there’s different types of desert you travel through, there’s different levels of vegetation – as you get closer to the lake it’s more salt affected.”

“Some places you’re sailing through Coolabah swamps, which is quite exciting, so it’s a real adventure.”

– Andrew Spence

About the club:

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Lake Eyre in northern South Australia is Australia’s biggest lake and the thirteenth largest in the world when full. It is also the lowest geographical point of the island nation at 15m below sea level.

The usually dry lake system in the state of South Australia – believed by early European settlers to be home to an enormous inland sea – is about 500km from the coast and only fills about four times a century.

The last time it was full was 1974 but water from tropical cyclone Trevor and wet season rains in outback Queensland are flowing to the lake through a network of rivers that drain into a basin covering a sixth of Australia – about the size of Spain.

Officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, the lake is about a third full with water levels expected to reach a peak – the highest level in more than 25 years – next month.

This has sparked a rare greening of the desert and attracted thousands of birds to an area that is usually among the driest, most inhospitable places on earth.

It is also attracting adventurous sailors from the Lake Eyre Yacht Club, who will compete in a unique outback regatta this week .

Dozens of adventurers have head to central Australia for the Outback Spirit Lake Eyre Yacht Club Regatta this week.

The Australian government’s Bureau of Meteorology National Flood Services Manager Alex Cornish said the 9500-square-kilometre lake would reach 50 per cent of its capacity in May – its highest water level since the early 1990s.

He said natural factors such as evaporation and the 1000km journey of the floodwaters through Channel Country to Lake Eyre made the event a rare natural phenomenon.

“It moves between 10 and 15km a day, which is quite slow,” said Cornish.

“What can happen is that there will be rain but not enough of it, so it evaporates or it just soaks into the ground and it never makes it so it’s quite a rare thing to see the floodwater fill the lake.

“The floodplain that has already received water is vibrant green and bursting with life, and it’s set against the brown, which is the earth.

“The area just comes alive.”

Time lapse satellite imagery shows the movement of water down from Queensland towards Lake Eyre and the greening of the Channel Country. Images courtesy of NASA.

Lake Eyre has been identified by BirdLife International as an “Important Bird Area” because it acts as a major breeding ground for many bird populations when flooded, including Australian pelicans, gulls, sandpipers and terns.

Small fish and crustaceans are usually found in Lake Eyre too and provide an important food source for the migratory birds.

Early European explorers to Australia were confident they would find a vast inland sea in the middle of the dry continent.

In 1840, Edward John Eyre was the first European to lay eyes on the huge lake, which now bears his name. But as for the inland sea, Lake Eyre was bone dry.

Intrepid tourists from around the world are still attracted to the inland sea, particularly when the basin is in flood.

Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre National Park is in flood. Picture: South Australian Tourism Commission/Adam Bruzzone.

The tiny Oodnadatta Track township of William Creek – which basically consists of an outback pub and an airstrip – is the closest settlement to Lake Eyre and is about 700km north of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia.

Publican, pilot and Wrightsair owner Trevor Wright has operated charter flights in the region since 1992 and said the speed and volume of this year’s floodwaters had been greater than expected.

He said water had started to move into Lake Eyre in mid-March ahead of the May peak after first filling the Goyder Lagoon closer to the Queensland border.

Daytime temperatures at Lake Eyre from December to March can reach 45C but drop to about 20C between May and August, which is also the peak time for tourists.

Wright said William Creek’s population – about 60km west of Lake Eyre – could swell to 200 during peak times.

Kalimurina is an Australian Wildlife Conservancy sanctuary at the intersection of three of Australia’s central deserts: the Munga-Thirri-Simpson Desert, the Tirari Desert and Sturt’s Stony Desert.

It stretches 140km from Lake Eyre to the southern boundary of the Simpson Desert, totalling almost 700,000 hectares.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy CEO Tim Allard said he expected the number of national and international tourists flocking to the region to reach 2000 in the coming months.

“That may not seem like a lot to most people, but in such a remote part of Australia where you might go 12 months with seeing only a handful of people to get a couple of thousand is a lot,” he said.

“When you see the water eventually making its way to Kathi-Thanda Lake Eyre, across the cracking clay soils, filling all those little cracks and rivulets across the expanse of Lake Eyre, it’s nothing short of a miracle.

Flood waters flowing towards Lake Eyre in March 2019. Picture: Trevor Wright

“You’re wondering how things can live out there and there’s water flowing through the creeks and birds flying around, and it’s just a stunning transformation.

“Lake Eyre is one of those once in a lifetime events where people should get out there and have a look.”

The outback town of Marree is the last major stop for visitors travelling towards the Birdsville Track, east of Lake Eyre, from Adelaide.

Marree Hotel manager Joe Calvert said the natural palette of the region during flood was also a drawcard.

“You don’t get these colours anywhere else – reds and browns,” he said.

“The change in country from when you drive north from south, through the Barossa, you go through the Flinders Ranges to get up here. It’s a pretty stark contrast.

“This year the number of travellers will spike around June, July, for sure.

“That big flood was pretty devastating for Queensland but it helped us because it filled the lake so it will give us a good tourist season.”

Coward Springs Campgrounds is situated southwest of Lake Eyre and is surrounded on all sides by 10km of Kadarbu Conservation Park.

Campgrounds owner Prue Coulls said the region surrounding Lake Eyre was one of Australia’s best natural landscapes, and that the filling of the lake was an important tourism attraction.

“We want everyone to appreciate what it is and immerse themselves,” she said.

“We’ve had a lot of inquiries into bookings, specifically after the filling of Lake Eyre.”

“The outback can either look amazing with flowering native plants and greenery or absolutely devastated because there is no rain.

“But because there will be water going into the lake that means people will be brought to the region to see its beauty.”

According to the latest Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure report , the rugged Oodnadatta and Birdsville tracks are open to Lake Eyre. However, the floodwaters have caused the temporary closure of the Birdsville Track between Mungeranie and Birdsville, which is a 275km section of road to the east of Lake Eyre up to the South Australia/Queensland border. The closure will impact tourists attempting to reach Lake Eyre from Queensland but visitors driving to the lake region from Adelaide should not be affected at this stage.

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Indigenous cultural fears aired over Lake Eyre yachting plan

Topic: Indigenous Culture

The traditional owners of Lake Eyre say the South Australian Government is not taking the cultural significance of the area seriously.

The Lake Eyre Yacht Club plans to hold a regatta on the lake this month, despite opposition from the Arabunna people.

The group's native title chairman, Aaron Stuart, says if the club sails on the lake without a permit, it will be fined but there is no punishment for going against the wishes of the traditional owners.

"They talk about the Aboriginal Heritage Act, which is law, but no-one has been pinched during its inception in 1986 and they won't pinch him for this either because ... they don't take Aboriginal cultural heritage seriously," he said.

"It's just an act there to satisfy people like me who whinge and complain about justice and rights."

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Grace Portolesi says she is serious about protecting Aboriginal culture and heritage at Lake Eyre.

She says she wants to reiterate to the yacht club that it needs to have a formal discussion with the traditional owners before doing anything.

"There needs to be a serious engagement with the Arabunna people," she said.

"Without that there can't be a resolution moving forward, so I'm interested in finding a resolution to this matter.

"I think it serves nobody for this matter to be hanging over our head."

"You don't have to tell your friends"

Membership , in some form, is open to all. Full membership, however, is available only to that exclusive group who have truly faced the challenge of the Lake. Membership is available in the following categories with the appropriate qualifications:

Step 1: Click here to download and print membership form

Step 3: Post (or scan/photograph and email) form to the address on the form. Membership approval and certificate will be sent by email.

Step 4: When your membership has been approved you may join the Club Member's Facebook group:

LEYC Member's Chat

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The Lake Eyre Yacht Club pennant and its derivation