214 



THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



The Mystery Lake, 



By Harold O. Fletcher. 



[Mr. G. H. Halligan recently organised an expedition to investigate Lake Eyre and 

 kindly invited the Trustees to send a member of the staff to accompany the expedition for 

 the purpose of making zoological collections. Mr. H. O. Fletcher was chosen for this task, 

 and the following article describes his exjDeriences.] 



LAKE EYRE, a vast expanse of salt 

 water far more briny than the sea, 

 is situated in the interior of South 

 AustraHa, over five hundred miles north 

 of Adelaide, and is known to many 

 people by name only, but the writer is 

 one of the fortunate ones who has had 

 the opportunity of visiting it, as a 

 member of a party of scientists who 

 went there with the object of carrying 

 out a number of investigations. 



The lake is divided into two parts, 

 North Lake Eyre, which is ninety miles 

 long by fifty miles wide, and connected 

 by a narrow channel, ten miles in length, 

 to the southern portion of the lake, 

 which is forty miles long and fifteen 

 miles wide. The district around Lake 

 Eyre is over thirty feet below sea level, 

 and it naturally follows that the bed of 

 the lake is much more than this, as it is 

 supposed to be between fifteen and 

 thirty feet deep in the centre. 



One of the most puzzling features of 

 Lake Eyre is its power to hold enormous 

 quantities of water for a short time, 

 and then without any warning what- 

 ever to absorb most of it, so that only 

 a comparatively small lake is left in the 

 centre, surrounded by impassable mud 

 and slime, coated to a depth of a few 

 inches with glistening white salt which 

 extends for miles. This water shifts 

 about under the action of the wind, and 

 may move either north, south, east or 

 west, as the wind varies. 



Very little is known about the centre 

 of the lake, or the life that might be 

 there, but Prof. W. Howchin, in his 

 Geography of South Australia, says : 

 " There is reason to believe that Lake 

 Eyre, in its earlier history, was a fresh- 

 water lake covering a much greater 

 area than at present, with an outlet to 

 the sea, but in which direction is not at 



present known. At that time the 

 Diamantina and other large rivers had 

 a permanent flow of fresh water and 

 were frequented by crocodiles, turtles 

 and the curious mud-fish Ceratodus ; 

 large marsupials (such as the Di])ro- 

 todon and others) now extinct, and giant 

 birds of the moa and emu type lived 

 on the plains." 



An expedition was organised on 

 information gained earlier in the year 

 when the leader flew over the lake area 

 in an aeroplane lent by the Defence 

 Department. At considerable risk a 

 large number of photographs were 

 taken, to show the extent of the water 

 in relation to the surrounding mud and 

 desert, and at this time the lake ap- 

 peared to be full enough to allow the 

 launching of a boat at the mouth of the 

 Fronie River, which enters North Lake 

 Eyre from the south. 



The party, consisting of Mr. G. H. 

 Halligan, F.G.S., hydrographer, of 

 Sydney (leader and organiser), and 

 Messrs. S. M. R. Sharland (from the 

 Mercury office, Hobart), H. W. Strong 

 (from the Melbourne University), and 

 the writer, started from Adelaide some 

 months later, to try to add scientific 

 information to that which is already 

 known, and to attempt to solve ]}rob- 

 lems relating to hydrography and the 

 existence or non-existence of certain 

 mound springs. A considerable quan- 

 tity of equipment accom]:)anied them, 

 included in which was a sixteen foot 

 boat complete with sailing gear and a 

 small collapsible canoe. 



For several hundred miles north of 

 Adelaide we travelled, through tha 

 well-known wheat areas, until Quorn 

 was left behind, and the train, gradu- 

 ally creeping away from the crops, 

 entered into the desert regions, a seem- 



