I Flew Over Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre as It Becomes an Inland Sea

We Are Explorers acknowledges that this adventure is located on the traditional Country of the Arbana people who have occupied and cared for the lands, waters, and their inhabitants for thousands of years. We pay our respects to them as the Traditional Custodians and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.

As far as the eye can see, there’s water, glistening from horizon to horizon as I swivel my head from the left window to the plane’s right. If you’ve snagged a window seat on an overseas flight, then you’re unlikely amazed; you’ve seen deep oceans sprawl into the distance as you travel between continents. But I’m not in a Boeing airliner, and I’m not in between continents.

I’m on an eight-seater joyflight nearing the centre of the Australian continent above Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre as it undertakes its most significant flooding event in 50 years.

If you sprawled out a map and cast your eye 700km north from Adelaide, you’ll see a blue mass signifying Australia’s largest lake. Contrary to its name and its signifying blue, it’s only during a sliver of the last century that Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre has actually held water. It’s normally a dry, salt bed.

Since May, floodwaters from south-west Queensland have been flowing into Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre after moving through rivers, creeks, and channels before eventually reaching the lowest natural point on Australia’s surface at 15.2m and filling the lake that stretches 144km from north to south and 77km east to west.

Read more: Remember to Leave No Trace

My First Time at Kati-Thanda Lake Eyre

Despite coastal dwelling in South Australia for 17 years, I haven’t travelled this far north into the state since my parents pulled my siblings and me out of primary school for a three-month lap of the country. My red dirt adventures have been frequent, but only as far as the Flinders Ranges, falling a 400km drive short of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre National Park.

Read more: Flinders Ranges – A Long Weekend Exploring South Australia’s Outback

As I mentioned to friends that I’d been invited to check it out, like me, they exclaimed how they’d love to make the trip to our home state’s Guiness World Record-holding ephemeral lake.

I’d long marvelled at the photographic work of Murray Fredericks at the lake, wondering what it would be like to see this arid, desolate moonscape, but as I began to hear about this once-in-a-generation flooding event, I became more compelled.

Getting to Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre

My journey to the lake begins with a two-hour regional flight from Adelaide. As the Rex Airlines flight begins its final descent, the flat arid landscape becomes dotted with acne-like bumps that become holes and mounds erratically scattered throughout the town as we get closer to the tarmac.

It’s a scene unique to the outback opal mining town of Coober Pedy. Although fascinating, the rare town that feels like a film set (and often is) isn’t the marvel we’re here to see; that’s still two hours of corrugated roads east.

Our 4WDs weave through the subtle changes in the remote arid landscape, passing only road graders, until eventually we intersect the famed Oodnadatta Track, where a couple of buildings break the terrain.

200km south is Maree, the beginning of the Oodnadatta Track, which also requires a 4WD. Explorers road tripping this dusty route from Adelaide are advised to carry extra water, food, and fuel supplies in case of emergency.

Read more: 4 Stops That Define the Oodnadatta Track

What’s it like being there?

Despite being in one of Australia’s most remote towns, the William Creek Hotel is a hive of activity. Inside’s beer and food, across the road is the campground and cabins, and next door’s the airfield. It’s everything we’ll need for our stay, which is good because there’s not much more, and a swing on the comedic gravel-like golf course seems trivial.

Inside, the pub’s littered with paraphernalia; travellers have pinned mementos of business cards, foreign currency, and grubby hats to the walls, marking their travels. It’s also packed. Since Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre began filling up, the hotel’s been serving 200 meals a night.

Flying Over Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre

The following morning, in the shadows of dawn, I’m standing amongst a bunch of tourists, listening to the pilot’s briefing, as we eagerly anticipate the sunrise. We’re about to board a Wrightsair scenic flight, the best way to view the expanse of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre and truly grasp its enormity.

Inflatable lifejackets are clipped to our waists as we buckle into the eight-passenger aircraft; they form a new protocol that’s been recently implemented now that the flight travels over water, despite the shallow 200mm depth.

‘We’ve been joking that the lake’s probably salty enough for you to float’, our pilot laughs. Jaiden Carter has been flying tourists for four hours a day since the lake began filling up.

His first nine weeks on the job were full of excitement and anticipation as Jaiden and the pilots at Wrightsair surveilled the floodwaters’ movements towards the dry expanse.

‘The most exciting part was when the water hit the Warburton Inlet in the north, we began tracking it down the Warburton Groove north of the lake and following the flow and movement of the water, which was covering about 10km a day’, Jaiden tells me.

‘The anticipation and excitement that came with knowing it was going to fill the lake, was awesome,’ he says. ‘I couldn’t believe that we were witnessing a once-in-50-year event and that I get to be a part of it.’

After a rattling take off, it’s about ten minutes until we reach the western edge of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre.

The land below becomes a painter’s textural masterpiece, as the creek beds shrink to veins in the landscape and the trees diminish to blemishes in the red dirt. 

As it pokes through the clouds, the early morning sun is casting shadows across the textural, orange landscape, until it’s met with a jagged scooping line of blue-grey floodwater.

Once it begins, it doesn’t stop. It casts its way entirely to the horizon. It’s hard to fathom that this water was once not here, and that it has travelled hundreds of kilometres through the Outback before pooling here. It truly feels like an inland sea.

The lake is of deep spiritual significance to the Arbana People, who received Native Title recognition to the land that covers most of the lake in 2012, with the Dieri People recognised as the Native Title holders of the eastern portion.

As we track north over the lake, the wind creates texture on what otherwise would be a still, glassy, mirror-like surface.

As we fly over, the water is covering 60% of the lake’s surface area, with anticipation that it could reach 100% capacity in October.

‘When it reached 100% capacity in 1974, the lake had a maximum depth of six metres in Belt Bay’, Jaiden explains through the headset. ‘Most of what we’re seeing along the shorelines is ankle deep, but it’s in areas like Belt Bay where you currently get depth of about 2.5 metres.’

Where has the water come from?

‘None of the water has been local rain, it’s all flowed down hundreds of kilometres of river system’, Jaiden tells me.

He scratches his head, thinking he’s seen maybe 0.2mm of rainfall in the weeks he’s been at William Creek.

The water we’re flying over has travelled down QLD’s Georgina and Diamantina Rivers, and into the Warburton River, where it meets the northern end of the lake.

From there it joins the Warburton Groove, a 100m wide channel that travels 140km through the lake, from the northern Warburton Inlet to Belt Bay in the lake’s south.

Satellite imagery of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre filling up | NASA Earth Observatory

Jaiden tells us they’re soon expecting Cooper Creek to start flowing into the lake from the eastern side as well.

‘The catchment area for Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre is one sixth of the country; the size of it is incredible’, says Jaiden.

It’s not what I picture when I think of a water catchment; there are no surrounding mountains, in fact, nothing breaks the level horizon, but slowly the land slopes to form the floodwater’s final destination on land.

A trip to Halligans Bay Point Campground reconfirms this, as standing at the cusp of the lake is like standing at the ocean’s edge, with nothing but water stretching to the horizon.

What’s next for Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre?

As the red dust settles behind us as we pull away from William Creek Hotel, I think about how special the next few months will be at Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre.

The lake may reach its capacity, last seen in 1974, as water flows to the deepest point at Lake Eyre South. Eventually, the endorheic system, a system that has no outlets other than evaporation, will dry up, producing a pink spectacle caused by a pigment found within a type of salt-loving algae.

The lake will become abundant with migratory birds like seagulls, ducks, and pelicans as scientists seek answers to how these birds, which travel from as far as Russia, China, and Antarctica, know that this rare event is occurring. 

When should I visit?

The area will continue to be inundated with Explorers, all making the journey to witness Australia’s largest salt lake in flood. Many eagerly wait to see if the event will reach the scale of 1974, which depends on further rainfall and the speed of evaporation.

The best times to visit the region are between March and October, to avoid the scorching heat, although be prepared for chilly nights.

While entering the lake, including walking, boating, swimming or other activities, is banned, it’s an impressive spot for twitchers, photographers, stargazers, and anyone looking to be awed by Mother Nature.

You can stay at William Creek Hotel, or camp lakeside within the national park at Halligan Bay Point. Visitors are advised to check the Desert Parks Bulletin before making the journey, and ensure they’re well-equipped for the remote conditions.

Jack was a guest of South Australia Tourism.

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