Lake Macdonnell - SA

  Lake,River,Creek

Position

DEG: -32.04444433 133.00295727
DMS: 32º 02' 40" S 133º 00' 10.66" E
UTM: 53 H 6452894mN 311443mE
Altitude: 0m

Description

Place Type

Geography - Lake,River,Creek

Location

610.4kms NorthWest of Adelaide - Driving 858 km (9 hours 42 mins)

Address & Contact

Lake Macdonnell
South Australia 5690
Phone: N/A
Email: N/A
Web: N/A

Information

Lake MacDonnell is a salt lake on western Eyre Peninsula, just south of Penong on the Nullarbor. Lake McDonnell's gypsum deposits are the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and gypsum mining has been ongoing here since 1919. Gypsum Resources Australia (GRA), a company jointly owned by Boral and CSR, have owned the mine since 1984. The current production from the mine is around one million tonnes annually. Gypsum is mined from brine pools using bulldozers and excavation equipment. It is stockpiled for several years to allow salt to leach out from natural rainfall. It is then loaded onto trains using front-end loaders. The gypsum is transported 64km by three trains per day from Kevin to the port of Thevenard. It is stockpiled at Thevenard, then loaded by the company's own ships, Orninston and Kowulka and various charter vessels, where it is transported to Glebe Island in Sydney for further processing.

Gypsum mined at Lake MacDonnell accounts for nearly all of Australia's gypsum production and it satisfies the Australian market requirement of gypsum in the production of cement, plasterboard and for use in agriculture. The mine creates about 40 jobs for local people, mainly living in Ceduna.

Going to Point Sinclair, you drive on a causeway across Lake McDonnell. The high salt concentration gives the impression of a salmon-pink lake on clear days. The lake waters may be blue in one direction and pink in another, often reflecting the white sand dunes.
PlaceID72683
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Wildflowers

Weather

Closest Weather Station

Thevenard at 05/06:00pm CDT
Distance from Lake Macdonnell 61.23km E
TemperatureFeels LikeRel. HumidityDew PointPressureRainfallWind DirectionWind SpeedGusts
26.8°C°C%°C1003.4hPa-mmWSW4km/hr
2knots
7km/hr
4knots

Closest Climatic Station

Ceduna Amo
Distance from Lake Macdonnell 66.08km E
 JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Mean Max. °C28.628.226.724.220.818.217.418.721.423.826.027.3
Mean Min. °C15.215.113.210.78.56.45.86.27.89.912.314.1
Mean Rain mm11.513.716.419.432.335.339.834.527.725.319.420.7

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