Hutt Lagoon is a marine

salt lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per liter). I ...

located near the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

coast north of the mouth of the Hutt River, in the

Mid West The Mid West region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is a sparsely populated region extending from the west coast of Western Australia, about north and south of its administrative centre of Geraldton and inland to east of W ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Geography

Hutt Lagoon is an elongate lake that sits in a dune swale adjacent to the coast. The town of Gregory is located between the ocean and the lake's southern shores. The road between Northampton and Kalbarri, George Grey Drive, runs along its eastern edge.StreetSmart Travellers Atlas of Western Australia (2002) The lake is about in length along its northwest-southeast axis, parallel with the coast, and around wide. Hutt Lagoon encompasses most of the Hutt Lagoon System, a DIWA-listed wetland system that also takes in a number of adjacent small lakes, such as Utcha Swamp.

Hydrology

The lagoon, a marginal-marine salina or

marine lake A marine lake is a lake situated very close to the sea, which has a connection to this sea, via tunnels or cracks in the soil. Marine lakes are fed with seawater but are usually also fed with rainwater, meaning that the salt content of the water is ...

, is an elongate depression about in area, with most of it lying a few metres below

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. It is separated from the

by a beach barrier ridge and barrier dune system. Similar to Lake MacLeod, to the north of Carnarvon, Hutt Lagoon is fed by marine waters through the barrier ridge and by meteoric waters through springs. Due to the salina’s sub-sealevel position, seepage of seawater into the salina is continuous year round. During the winter wet season, the amount of water coming into the salina is substantially increased by the influx of meteoric groundwater. Hutt Lagoon has a

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, with mean annual rainfall of (mainly May to August), and a mean annual evaporation rate of . These factors combine to form a setting within which salt is deposited seasonally and the rates and style of precipitation follow a balance between influx of water and removal by evaporation. During the summer about 95% of the salina surface is a dry salt flat.

History

Hutt Lagoon was named by the explorer

George Grey Sir George Grey, KCB (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Gov ...

, who camped on its eastern edge on 4 April 1839 while on his second disastrous expedition along the Western Australian coast. He mistook the wet season lagoon for a large

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

and named "the river and estuary now discovered" after William Hutt, M.P., brother of

John Hutt John Hutt (24 July 1795 – 9 April 1880) was Governor of Western Australia from 1839 to 1846. Life Born in London on 24 July 1795, John Hutt was the fourth of 13 children of Richard Hutt of Appley Towers, Ryde, Isle of Wight. He was educate ...

, the second

Governor of Western Australia The governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of the monarch, King Charles III. As with the other governors of the Australian states, the governor of Western Australia performs constitutional, ceremonial and commun ...

. Hutt was a British Liberal politician who was heavily involved in the colonization of Western Australia, New Zealand and South Australia. After Grey's arrival back in Perth, Governor Hutt dispatched the colonial schooner ''Champion'' under Captain Dring to investigate the large estuary and river discovered. In summer, January 1840,

George Fletcher Moore George Fletcher Moore (10 December 1798 – 30 December 1886) was a prominent early settler in colonial Western Australia, and "one fthe key figures in early Western Australia's ruling elite" (Cameron, 2000). He conducted a number of exploring ...

aboard ''Champion'' reported the Hutt River at its mouth to be dry, and could not locate the large estuary described by Grey.

Resources

β-carotene

Hutt Lagoon is a pink lake, a

with a red or pink hue due to the presence of the

carotenoid Carotenoids () are yellow, orange, and red organic pigments that are produced by plants and algae, as well as several bacteria, archaea, and fungi. Carotenoids give the characteristic color to pumpkins, carrots, parsnips, corn, tomatoes, cana ...

-producing

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

Dunaliella salina ''Dunaliella salina'' is a type of halophile unicellular green algae especially found in hypersaline environments, such as salt lakes and salt evaporation ponds. Known for its antioxidant activity because of its ability to create a large amoun ...

'', a source of β-carotene, a food-colouring agent and source of vitamin A. The lagoon contains the world's largest microalgae production plant, a series of artificial ponds used to farm ''

''.

Brine shrimp

Hutt Lagoon provides a commercial supply of ''

Artemia parthenogenetica ''Artemia parthenogenetica'' is a species of brine shrimp – aquatic crustaceans belonging to a different class, the Branchiopoda, than the true shrimps. Taxonomy The name ''Artemia parthenogenetica'' is widely used in the relevant literature, ...

'' brine shrimp. ''Artemia'' is a specialty feed used by prawn and fish farmers and the aquarium fish trade.

Salt and gypsum

In 1854 the explorer

Augustus Charles Gregory Sir Augustus Charles Gregory (1 August 1819 – 25 June 1905) was an English-born Australian explorer and surveyor. Between 1846 and 1858 he undertook four major expeditions. He was the first Surveyor-General of Queensland. He was appointed a ...

promoted the quantity and quality of the salt deposits at Hutt Lagoon and their proximity to Port Gregory. He also commended the gypsum deposits on the western shore of the lagoon. At the 1873 Sydney Intercolonial Exhibition salt from the Hutt Lagoon deposit was Highly Commended. Hutt Lagoon gypsum received a Bronze Medal. Hutt Lagoon salt was also exhibited at the 1880 Melbourne Exhibition. In August 1908 Port Gregory Saltworks consigned its first shipment of salt on SS ''Venus''. Production was seasonal, of the order of 4,000 tons per year and employing up to 50, until the salt operation went into liquidation in 1924.

References

{{reflist Lakes of the Mid West (Western Australia) DIWA-listed wetlands Saline lakes of Western Australia Lagoons of Australia Arakel, A (1979) Quaternary sedimentation in Hutt and Leeman Lagoons, Western Australia, PhD Thesis, The University of Western Australia, Australia Arakel, A.V., 1980. Genesis and diagenesis of Holocene evaporitic sediments in Hutt and Leeman Lagoons, Western Australia: Jour. Sedim. Petrology, v. 50, p. 1305-1326. Arakel, A.V., 1981. Geochemistry and hydrodynamics in Hutt and Leeman evaporitic Lagoons, Western Australia: a comparative study: Marine Geology, v. 39, p. 1-28. Arakel, A.V., 1982. Genesis of calcrete in Quaternary soil profiles of the Hutt and Leeman Lagoons, Western Australia: Jour. Sedim. Petrology, v. 52, p.109-125. Arakel, A.V., 1982. A study of geochemistry and hydrodynamics in Hutt Lagoon: In: A Special Volume on ISCOL Proceedings. Oceanologica Acta, Special Volume, p. 9-19. Arakel, A.V. and T. Moulton, 1986. Hydro-geochemistry of surficial brines in Hutt Lagoon, Western Australia. Proceedings of SLEADS '84 Workshop, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 54, p. 261-282. Arakel A.V., 1986. Vadose diagenesis and multiple calcrete soil profile development in Hutt Lagoon area, Western Australia. Revue de Geologie Dynamique et de Geographie Physique, v. 26, p. 243-254.