51 Lake Hillier Facts: A Notable Pink Colour Waterbody!

This small lake is surrounded by a rim of sand and a dense woodland of paperbark and eucalyptus trees.

A thin strip of sand dunes protected by vegetation separates the pink lake's northern edge from Middle Island's northern coast. What really makes it special is that its color is pink.

Lake Hillier is located close to the coast of Middle Island in the Recherche Archipelago, to the south of Western Australia. A long, thin shore divides the lake from the Southern Ocean. Discovered by an explorer of the Royal Navy in 1802, the most notable feature of the lake appears to be its pink, vibrant color. 

What on earth is a pink lake? When the water is placed in a container, the brilliant color remains constant. The pink color of the lake is due to the presence of an organism known as 'Dunaliella salina' in the water.

It's now a protected nature reserve, however, it can be visited under certain conditions. It's preferable to see it from the air to appreciate its rose colour beauty. This lake has been a mysterious pink color for years and remains pink today.

Is Lake Hillier safe?

Despite the lake's pink appearance, the water is crystal clear and safe to swim in and even to touch, exactly like most seas and oceans throughout the world. The difference is that there are no macro-organisms such as fish to worry about.

So regardless of the red algae present in the water, Hillier Lake is completely safe to swim in. But it's important to be extra aware that the hyper-saline water shouldn't get into your mouth.

Despite this, getting to the lake is extremely arduous, making it impossible for average tourists to arrive on foot.

The lake is best seen from the air, where its vibrant pink color contrasts with the surrounding trees and the Indian Ocean.

Travelers can be dropped off on Middle Island from helicopter flights and cruise ships on rare occasions, however, these typically observe the lake from the beach. If you ever happen to be close to the lake and manage to go for a swim, you'll be in for an intriguing experience.

The lake is today mostly a tourist attraction, but it was originally utilized to extract salt due to its large salt deposits and salt crust, both of which were extremely important in the salt production process.

Tourism And Lake Hillier

Lake Hillier isn't the only pink lake in Australia. Another pink lake is Hutt Lagoon, also located in Western Australia. Both pink lakes continue to remain pink today and are responsible for producing salt, but Lake Hillier is the most visited lake in Western Australia. 

Lake Hillier is best seen from above, with a bird's-eye view of its bright hue. Various air services operate in the area to give the tourists a view from the sky.

The view is stunning as it creates a striking contrast between the pink hue of the water, dark green vegetation surrounding it, and the deep blue water of the Southern Ocean.

This vibrant part of Western Australia is all about the great outdoors, with some of the best bushwalking, cycling, fishing, diving, kayaking, abseiling, and windsurfing possibilities in the country.

Lucky Bay, a gorgeous beach with a resident population of kangaroos hopping all over the sand, is another iconic location in the Cape Le Grand National Park. Between May and October, when wildflowers bloom and whales migrate along the coast, Cape Arid National Park, Stokes National Park, and Woody Lake Nature Reserve are all worth visiting.

The pink lake is also relatively shallow, and its shoreline is covered in salt crust layers, making it ten times saltier than the adjacent ocean. However, Lake Hillier is not open to public swimming due to the inaccessibility of the area.

It's believed that although it's so difficult to reach Lake Hillier because of it being rimmed on salt crusts, the lake would be perfectly safe to swim in.

Aqua Life At Lake Hillier

Due to the high salinity of Lake Hillier, organisms find it hard to survive there and there are only a few species that survive.

The salt concentration of the pink lake is almost the same as the Dead Sea. As with organisms in the Dead Sea, many hard it difficult to live in a body of water with such a high salt content.

The only living creatures and organisms in Lake Hillier are a few types of microbes, such as red algae Dunaliella salina, which allow the salt concentration in the lake to produce a red dye that aids in the coloration, and red halophilic bacteria, bacterioruberin, found in the salt crusts.

A Modern History Of Lake Hillier

The Matthew Flinders expedition visited Lake Hillier on Jan 15, 1802. The journal entries of Flinders are believed to be the first written accounts of the lake.

Matthew Flinders observed the pink lake after ascending the island's highest peak (now called Flinders Peak). He described Hillier Lake as a small lake of rose color in the north-eastern part of the country.

The water was highly saturated with salt content that sufficient quantities were crystallized near the shores to load a ship. He also stated that the salt collected only needed some evaporation in very few ways.

Flinders is said to have named the lake after William Hillier, a member of the expedition crew who died before the expedition left Middle Island. 

Edward Andrews studied the financial potential of extracting salt from Lake Hillier in 1889, and he and both of his sons briefly relocated to the island. They left after roughly a year of working the salt resources and obtaining sufficient amounts of salt.

During the late 1800s, the pink lake was subjected to salt mining. The salt mining industry is said to have failed due to a variety of factors, including the toxicity of the salt mined for human consumption.

Lake Hillier was once part of the Recherche Archipelago National Reserve, which was established in 2012. The pink lake has been designated as a wetland of sub-regional significance since 2002.

Other Interesting Facts About Lake Hillier

Spencer Lake, also located in Western Australia, has not been pink for over 15 years. The once famous pink lake in Spencer faded because of changes in natural water flow, reduced evaporation, and salt harvesting.

The lake's water at Hutt Lagoon, as with Lake Hillier remains pink. These are the only pink lakes left in Western Australia.