Description
Lake Galilee is a semi-arid, saline, playa tectonic, depressional lake about 76 kilometres north-east of Aramac, in Central West Queensland. It is located in a shallow closed basin bordered by the Great Dividing Range to the west and north. The 255,480 hectare catchment is a closed, internally draining basin, which is fed by some 20 seasonal streams. It is in the Desert Uplands bioregion, the Lake Eyre Basin drainage division and lies Thomson River catchment of the Cooper Basin.
The Lake covers approximately 25,700 hectares with a perimeter of 236.7 kilometres. It extends 36 km in a northeast-southwest direction, and is up to 12.5 km wide, with a maximum depth of less than two metres. It has a complex shoreline characterised by many small bays. There are three large islands to the south formed by partial infilling by alluvial sands and clays, which have been carried in by numerous streams.
The water is fresh when full but becomes brackish from leached terrestrial salts as it dries. Water varies from fresh and milky coloured when recently inundated and well into the dry season, to hyposaline in the deepest, southern parts of the lake, which take the longest to dry out. The northern half of the lake is more persistently fresh. Lake Galilee falls within the 508 to 610 mm isohyets, with the rain predominantly falling in the summer months from December to March. However, in 2010 there was over 1,000 mm in the catchment.
Together with the smaller Lake Buchanan to the north, Lake Galilee represents a rare type of lake in Australia. Both lake basins represent tectonic depressions created by movements deep in the earth’s crust; they have relatively small catchments and are bordered by the Great Dividing Range.
Wind-borne clay, silt and sand have formed accompanying low fringing dunes, known as lunettes, around the lake. Landforms and vegetation may be exposed or covered by water depending on depth of water. Diversity and complexity are likely to be greatest when the lake is below maximum depth but above half-full depth.
Read more about this topic: Lake Galilee (Queensland)
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