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First look as the spectacular Lake Eyre fills up and the outback comes to life!

It only happens a few times every century, but Lake Eyre is filling fast, as these early pictures show.

The ABC reports that recent rainfall in South Australia’s far north is already turning the dry and dusty plains green with vegetation, and it is a sight to behold.

The Bureau of Meteorology has flood watch alerts in place and parts of the Birdsville and Strzelecki Tracks are closed.

While there is a common perception that Australia’s largest lake floods every year, it is actually extremely rare for it to fill right up. Marree Hotel publican Phil Turner said the last time Lake Eyre filled up was in 1974. However, the lake bed did receive 100 per cent coverage in the 2009 to 2010 deluge, according to the ABC.

“Since that flooding in 2009, whenever there has been water around, there has been a lot of attention, particularly media attention, in Lake Eyre,” Mr Turner said. “If there was water in it all the time, it would just be another lake, but because the rain is few and far between it’s got this sort of mystery or unique occurrence about it.”

The lake is officially known as as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, combining the indigenous name with its colonial name, which is in honour of Edward John Eyre, who was the first European to see it, in 1840.

Posted by Kirkhope Aviation – Air Charter on Sunday, January 3, 2016

For many Aussies, this rare sight is firmly on the bucket list – will you make the pilgrimage? Flights over the lake in bloom cost around $1000 dollars.

Would you like to see Lake Eyre when it fills? Is this on your bucket list?

 

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