Lake Bumbunga is a salt lake located in the Mid North of the state of South Australia, between the town of Lochiel and the farming locality of Bumbunga, approximately 1.5 hours’ drive from Adelaide. It is a pink lake, with its colour due to certain algae.
Salt has been mined there almost continuously since 1881, and it has become a tourist attraction, along with its “Loch Eel Monster” sculpture in the middle of it.
The lake is situated in the Mid North of South Australia, approximately 125 km (78 mi)[5] (1.5 hours’ drive) from the state capital city, Adelaide.[6] Easily visible from Highway 1 for a distance of 10 km (6.2 mi), the 15-square-kilometre (5.8 sq mi)[7] Lake Bumbunga is a dramatic departure from the surrounding landscape due to its seasonal pink colouration and wide expanse.[8] The colour is due to a certain type of algae which tolerates its high salinity and produces pink pigment that helps it to take energy. The colour does change from time to time, for instance it may be pinker in spring than winter, owing to more fresh water bringing nutrients to the algae, and there’s more sunlight than the winter months. Summers are dry and the water evaporates.[5]
The lake is the largest of a system of Quaternary Holocene saline lakes extending about 30 km (19 mi) north of Lochiel, draining an area to the east of the Barunga Range, where it merges with the Hummock Range. Salt is dissolved from saline mud produced when winter rain fills the lake.[9] Each summer a large portion of the lake dries up.[8]