Lake Wells is an ephemeral salt lake in the centre 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 ...

, lying in close proximity to

Lake Carnegie Lake Carnegie is a reservoir that straddles the borders of the towns of Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton, West Windsor, New Jersey, West Windsor, Plainsboro, New Jersey, Plainsboro and South Brunswick, New Jersey, South Brunswick in Mercer County ...

. It lies east of Wiluna and is at the southern edge of the

Little Sandy Desert The Little Sandy Desert (LSD) is a desert region in the state of Western Australia, lying to the east of the Pilbara and north of the Gascoyne regions. It is part of the Western Desert cultural bloc, Western Desert cultural region, and was dec ...

and south western border of the

Gibson Desert The Gibson Desert is a large desert in Western Australia, largely in an almost pristine state. It is about in size, making it the fifth largest desert in Australia, after the Great Victoria, Great Sandy, Tanami and Simpson deserts. The ...

. It also lies to the north west of the

Great Central Road The Great Central Road is a mostly unsealed Australian highway that runs from Laverton, Western Australia to Yulara, Northern Territory . It passes through a number of small communities on the way. It forms part of the Outback Way which goes ...

and the

Great Victoria Desert The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explore ...

. Its surface elevation is 436 metres above mean sea-level. Lake Wells has an area of 1895 square kilometres.

Discovery

Lake Wells was discovered by Europeans in March 1892 during the second part of The Elder Scientific Exploring Expedition 1891–1892. The 1891 phase of the expedition led by David Lindsay had been recalled by its benefactor Sir Thomas Elder, so in February 1892 Lindsay sent his second in command Lawrence Wells on a smaller expedition to explore the area east of the Murchison River in Western Australia. During this expedition Wells (a surveyor) found and named Lake Way, Lake Darlot and Lake Wells.

References

Saline lakes of Western Australia Lakes of Goldfields–Esperance (Western Australia) {{WesternAustralia-geo-stub

Discovery

See also

References