There are many unusual places in Australia. Here you will find the famous Sydney Opera House, the Great Barrier Reef, and Uluru. Perhaps Australia is the richest continent in natural attractions!
Today we will talk about one of the most unusual lakes in Australia, and possibly in the whole world - Lake Hillier. This body of water is located on the edge of the Middle Island, which is part of the Exploration Archipelago, which stretches for tens of kilometers along the southern coast of Western Australia.
This archipelago includes hundreds of small islets, but it is the Sredinny Island that is of greatest interest to travelers. The Sredinny Island itself is not very remarkable. Most of the island is occupied by dense eucalyptus forests, but there was also a place for a small lake, the main feature of which was the color of its water. The fact is that the water in Lake Hillier is bright pink!
For the first time, people discovered an unusual lake in 1802. Then the British navigator Matthew Flinders decided to stop at the island on the way to Sydney. What a surprise the traveler was when, among the dense forests of the island, he came across a pink reservoir!
Over the next few years, many whalers and seal hunters sailed to Sredinny Island. Some of them preferred to settle on the island, so soon the first settlements appeared here. At the beginning of the 20th century, salt mining began in Lake Hiller, but after 6 years it was stopped. More salt was not mined here, so for some time they literally forgot about the Sredinny Island …
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The interest in the unusual lake was renewed among people only in 1950. Then a group of researchers was sent to the island, whose main goal was to analyze the water in Lake Hillier. Initially, scientists believed that the reason for the unusual color of the lake was in algae, which, being in their natural habitat (that is, in salt water), give the liquid its characteristic pink color.
Several tests were carried out, but none of them confirmed the assumptions of the scientific group. As a result, studies have never answered why the water in Lake Hillier has a pronounced pink tint. Water is like water, that's just pink! Since then, several more studies have been carried out, but the mystery of Lake Hillier has remained unsolved …
Lake Hillier is only 600 meters wide. On all sides, the reservoir is surrounded by tall, bright green eucalyptus trees, which contrast sharply with the pink water of the lake. The lake is located at the very edge of the island, and only a narrow strip of land, consisting mainly of sand dunes, separates it from the ocean. From a bird's eye view, the lake looks the most impressive. The fact is that the shores of the lake are bordered with a thin layer of white salt, so from above it seems that the “pink spot” is framed!
Thousands of tourists come to the island every year. They all want to see with their own eyes an unusual lake that looks so great against the backdrop of evergreen eucalyptus trees!