Lake Amadeus


Lake Amadeus is a large salt lake in the southwest corner of Northern Territory of Australia, about north of Uluru. The smaller Lake Neale is adjacent to the northwest. It is part of the Amadeus Basin that was filled with the erosion products of the Petermann Orogeny.

Physical features

Due to the aridity of the area, the surface of Lake Amadeus is usually a dry salt crust. In times of sufficient rainfall, it is part of an east-flowing drainage system that eventually connects to the Finke River.
Lake Amadeus is long and wide, making it the largest salt lake in the Northern Territory.
Lake Amadeus contains up to 600 million tonnes of salt; however, harvesting it has not proved viable, owing to its remote location.

History

Lake Amadeus is on Aboriginal land, and is covered by the Katiti and Petermann Aboriginal Land Trusts.
The first European to arrive at the lake, the explorer Ernest Giles, encountered it in 1872. Giles originally intended to honour his benefactor Baron Ferdinand von Mueller with the eponym Lake Ferdinand. However, Mueller prevailed upon Giles to instead honour King Amadeo I of Spain, who had previously bestowed honour on him. The lake's expanse proved a barrier for Giles, who could see both the as yet undiscovered Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta but could not reach them as the dry lake bed was not able to support the weight of his horses.
The next year, William Gosse climbed and named both rises.