Lake Harris (South Australia)

This article is about the lake in South Australia. For the associated locality, see Lake Harris, South Australia.

Lake Harris
Lake Harris is located in South Australia
Lake Harris
Lake Harris
Location in South Australia
LocationSouth Australia
Coordinates31°04′S 135°14′E / 31.07°S 135.24°E / -31.07; 135.24
TypeEndorheic, salt lake
Primary outflowsevaporation[1]
Basin countriesAustralia
DesignationLake Gairdner National Park[1]
Max. length32 kilometres (20 mi)[2]
Max. width16 kilometres (10 mi)[2]
Surface area300 square kilometres (120 sq mi)[3]
Islands“a number of islands”[4]

Lake Harris is an endorheic salt lake in the Australian state of South Australia to the north of the Eyre Peninsula located about 530 kilometres (330 mi) northwest of the state capital of Adelaide within the gazetted localities of Lake Harris and Wilgena.[2][5]

Lake Harris was named by the Government of South Australia after the surveyor, Charles Hope Harris, who discovered and mapped it in 1874.[6]

Lake Harris is aligned in a north-easterly direction with an overall length of about 32 kilometres (20 mi) and a maximum width of about 16 kilometres (10 mi).[2][7] It extent includes “a number of Islands” described as being formed from “Quaternary deposits with extensive sand cover.”[4] Its bed consists of “gypsiferous muds, clays and silts with some gypsum crystals” topped with a salt crust of thickness in the range of 30 millimetres (1.2 in) to 75 millimetres (3.0 in), although parts of the lake have a surface with “no identifiable salt crust”.[4] The lake bed contains a dune field of gypsum sands which vegetated with both “low samphire shrubland and tall shrubland with a chenopod shrub understorey.”[4]

Lake Harris along with the nearby lakes of Everard and Gairdner, form the extent of the protected area known as the Lake Gairdner National Park.[1]

  1. ^ a b c DEH, 2004, page 5
  2. ^ a b c d "Search result for " Lake Harris (Lake)" (Record no SA0029447) with the following layers selected - "Suburbs and Localities" and " Place names (gazetteer)"". Property Location Browser. Government of South Australia. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  3. ^ DEH, 2004, page ii
  4. ^ a b c d DEH, 2004, page 13
  5. ^ DEH, 2004, pages 5-7
  6. ^ "OFFICERS IN THE CIVIL SERVICE". Quiz and The Lantern. Vol. X, no. 503. South Australia. 11 May 1899. p. 4. Retrieved 23 September 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ DEH, 2004, page 6