Lake Gairdner - Gawler Ranges

A photo tour to a glistening salt lake in the South Australian Outback

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Lake Gairdner is a huge salt lake in Outback South Australia. The glistening white surface, surrounded by red hills and red beaches, is a beautiful sight.
Along with Lake Everard and Lake Harris, the area is protected as Lake Gairdner National Park.




The Gairdner lake is irregularly shaped, about 160 km long and it covers an area of roughly 4,800 sq km. It is Australia's fourth largest salt lake, and it is usually dry. There are also a few small islands within the lake. The salt is over 1 m thick in some areas.



Location
The south shore of Lake Gairdner forms the northern boundary of Mount Ive Station. The only public access to the lake is along a 34 km station track from Mt. Ive. In dry weather the track is no problem. If you stay at Mt. Ive station, a visit to the lake is definitely a highlight you shouldn't miss.

To the north the lake stretches close to the Transaustralian Railway line and Stuart Highway. Although the track from Mt. Ive to Kingoonya runs between the lakes Gairdner, Everard and Harris, there's no access to the shores.
The Gairdner National Park is surrounded by private station properties, so please stay on the track.



The slopes of the Gawler Ranges clearly define the shores of the lake in the south. Further north there are low sand ridges. This is a remote and arid country. It is beautiful, nevertheless. Vegetation is scrub and salt bush and desert flowers after good rain.



Well, as I said above, Lake Gairdner is usually dry. However, when I visited in November 2008, water lapped the shores as you can clearly see in the photos. I guess this was a rather unusual sight.

6 creeks and rivers feed the lake: Garden Well Creek, Gorge Creek, Yeltabinna Creek to name a few. Usually, those creeks are dry as well.



There are no facilities at the public access area on the lake. The hut pictured below provides some shade if you want to sit down and have a picnic. Although it was a hot day, the rainwater tank held cool and fresh water.



Once a year at the end of summer the lake gets very busy when the Dry Lake Racers have their race week. Of course, the event depends on the weather. The surface of the lake has to be firm and dry, and permission of the South Australian Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH) has to be granted. Visit the Dry Lakes Racers website for more information about this event. They also provide a good map of the lake and the Gawler Ranges area.



Visiting Lake Gairdner National Park is a wonderful experience. Please be well-prepared and take care of Outback Safety.


For more information about the Gawler Ranges please check out my other pages of this beautiful area.