A salt lake in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia is called a pink lake. The reason behind the lake is pink due to salt concentration. It lies about 3 kilometres west of Esperance and is bounded to the east by the South Coast Highway.2,225 acres is the surface area of this lake. External changes and weather conditions can affect the colour of the lake. Esperance’s Pink Lake has lost its pink colour due to salinity changes caused by human activity. The lake has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area because it usually supports significant numbers of hooded plovers and sometimes over 1% of the world population of banded stilts.
It has had many migrant and native birds. Between 1997 and 2006, populations ranging between 12 and 12,000 of the banded stilt were recorded. There was a population of between 5 and 68 of the hooded plovers from 1995 to 2005. Lake Hillier is one of Australia’s most famous pink lakes, located off the southern coast of Western Australia on Middle Island. British explorer, Matthew Flinders, discovered the lake in January 1802 when he climbed the highest peak on the island and noticed “a small lake of a rose colour”. The lake turned out to be as saline as the Dead Sea, and Flinders used the opportunity to top up his ship’s salt stores.
Besides Lake Hillier, there are four pink lakes in Victoria’s Murray-Sunset National Park, Lake Crosbie, Lake Becking, Lake Kenyon and Lake Hardy, and there is also a pink inlet located between Geraldton and Kalbarri in Western Australia, called Hutt Lagoon. Though the pink lake is not dangerous, we are not allowed to visit this lake because of the presence of halophilic bacteria in the salt crusts. A reaction between the salt and the sodium bicarbonate that is found in the water may cause allergy.
Hutt Lagoon is pink is because it contains algae often used for food colouring and in cosmetics. It is not advisable to drink water from Lake Hillier. Fishes can’t survive in the high salt concentration of the pink Lake Hillier. The type of microorganisms known as the Dunaliella salina is what gives the pink Lake Hillier its characteristic bubble-gum pink hue. This microorganism is rich in beta carotene. The lake bumbuga is known to change colour from pink to white, to blue, depending on the salinity of the water throughout the year. Hutt Lagoon is a salt lake located near the coast of Western Australia. A huge percentage of the surface is made up of dry salt due to the high levels of evaporation. The salty water comes from the proximity of the Indian Ocean. The pink hue is a result of the algae in the water.
Credits: Jothika
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