Lake Macleod
Lake in Western Australia
title: "Lake Macleod" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["lakes-of-the-gascoyne-(western-australia)", "diwa-listed-wetlands", "important-bird-areas-of-western-australia"] description: "Lake in Western Australia" topic_path: "geography/australia" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Macleod" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Lake in Western Australia ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox body of water"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Lake Macleod |
| image | lake macleod.jpg |
| image_size | 280 |
| alt | Satellite photo of Lake Macleod |
| caption | Lake Macleod satellite image, 1989 |
| pushpin_map | Australia Western Australia |
| pushpin_map_alt | Location of Lake Macleod in Western Australia |
| pushpin_label_position | right |
| pushpin_map_caption | Location in northwest Western Australia |
| location | Gascoyne, Western Australia |
| coords | |
| type | Salt lake |
| inflow | Lyndon River, Minilya River |
| outflow | none |
| basin_countries | Australia |
| area | 2000 km2 |
| depth | 1.5 m |
| max-depth | 2.1 m |
| reference | |
| mapframe | yes |
| mapframe-zoom | 8 |
| :: |
::callout[type=note] the lake in Australia ::
| name = Lake Macleod | image = lake macleod.jpg | image_size = 280 | alt = Satellite photo of Lake Macleod | caption = Lake Macleod satellite image, 1989 | pushpin_map = Australia Western Australia | pushpin_map_alt = Location of Lake Macleod in Western Australia | pushpin_label_position = right | pushpin_map_caption = Location in northwest Western Australia | image_bathymetry = | caption_bathymetry = | location = Gascoyne, Western Australia | coords = | type = Salt lake | inflow = Lyndon River, Minilya River | outflow = none | catchment = | basin_countries = Australia | length = | width = | area = 2000 km2 | depth = 1.5 m | max-depth = 2.1 m | volume = | residence_time = | shore = | elevation = | islands = | cities = | reference = | mapframe = yes | mapframe-zoom = 8
Lake Macleod is a marine salt lake in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, 30 km north of the port and regional centre of .
History
Dirk Hartog, a Dutchman, made the first authenticated landing by a European along this coastline in 1616. Early explorers recorded phenomenal tidal ranges along this coast.
Description
Most of Lake Macleod is normally dry, covering an area of 2000 km2, 60 km2 of which is covered by perennial bodies of brine.
Climatically, this part of Western Australia is greatly influenced by the north-flowing Western Australian Current that brings cool water northward from Antarctica, which is not conducive to producing inland precipitation. This cool offshore current, coupled with a very flat coastal plain, contributes to the near-desert-like conditions along the coastal region as evidenced by the brown landscape around the lake and the highly reflective salt beds within the lake. The low point in the lake appears to be near the northern end where the light blues indicate some standing water. Close inspection of the image discloses very faint lines at the southernmost end of Lake Macleod where large evaporation beds are used for the production of high-quality salt and gypsum.
Environment
The lake is recognised as a DIWA wetland as it is an outstanding example of a major lake situated on the coast that is periodically inundated by freshwater
Birds
Some 382 km2 of the permanent ponds in the north-western part of the lake have been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because they support fairy terns, over 1% of the world populations of red-necked stints, curlew sandpipers, banded stilts, red-necked avocets and red-capped plovers, as well as a population of dusky gerygones. The northern ponds consist of intermittently flooded, brackish to hypersaline mudflats surrounding saline springs and permanent saline channels and lagoons. Large numbers of red knots, Australian pelicans, little black cormorants, black-tailed godwits and black-winged stilts have been recorded. A substantial population of canary white-eyes is present. A review of the importance of the lake for shorebirds showed that it hosted significant populations of 10 species of which red knot, red-necked stint and curlew sandpiper occurred in internationally significant numbers.
References
References
- {{Gazetteer of Australia
- (November 2011). "Lake MacLeod and the Northern Ponds". Rangelands Natural Resource Management.
- (2016). "Small-scale biogeographic patterns of benthic bacterial and ciliate communities in the saline ponds of Lake MacLeod, North-Western Australia".
- "Rio Tinto Dampier Salt - Lake MacLeod".
- "SLWA Online Catalogue /Entire Sta".
- (2010). "DIWA information Sheet".
- "IBA: Lake MacLeod". Birds Australia.
- BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Lake MacLeod. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 29 July 2011
- (July 2012). "Importance of Lake MacLeod, northwestern Australia, to shorebirds: a review and update". Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::