Lake Barlee is an intermittent salt lake

Salt lake

A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water which has a concentration of salts and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes . In some cases, salt lakes have a higher concentration of salt than sea water, but such lakes would also be termed hypersaline lakes...

 in Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. It is about 150 km east of Paynes Find

Paynes Find, Western Australia

Paynes Find is a former gold rush settlement approximately northeast of Perth in the Mid West region of Western Australia. It is reachable by the Great Northern Highway. Only a roadhouse, which serves as a fuel stop, and a few other buildings remain today. The area is renowned for its...

 and west of Leonora

Leonora, Western Australia

Leonora is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located northeast of the state capital, Perth, and north of the city of Kalgoorlie. At the 2006 census, Leonora had a population of 401, about a third of whom are of Aboriginal descent. The area is extremely arid, with a...

 on the border between the Shires of Sandstone

Shire of Sandstone

The Shire of Sandstone is a Local Government Area in the eastern Mid West region of Western Australia, about northeast of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of , and its seat of government is the town of Sandstone.-History:...

 and Menzies

Shire of Menzies

The Shire of Menzies is a Local Government Area in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia located to the north of Kalgoorlie. The Shire covers an area of , and its seat of government is the town of Menzies.-History:...

. Lake Barlee is more than 100 km wide from west to east, and about 80 km wide from north to south. The lake is usually dry. It fills about once every ten years on average, after which the water persists for a little less than a year. When it is inundated it becomes an important breeding site for waterbirds.

History

Lake Barlee was discovered by John Forrest

John Forrest

Sir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....

 in 1869. Forrest's party, who were searching for the long lost explorer Ludwig Leichhardt

Ludwig Leichhardt

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt, known as Ludwig Leichhardt, was a Prussian explorer and naturalist, most famous for his exploration of northern and central Australia.-Early life:...

, became bogged while trying to cross the salt lake on 19 March. After extracting their horses from the bog, they skirted the lake for nearly a week. On 25 March, Forrest climbed a hill in the area and saw the great extent of the lake. He then named it after Frederick Barlee

Frederick Barlee

Sir Frederick Palgrave Barlee KCMG was Colonial Secretary of Western Australia from 1855 to 1875; Lieutenant-Governor of the British Honduras from 1877 to 1882; and Administrator of Trinidad in 1884....

, the Colonial Secretary of Western Australia

Colonial Secretary of Western Australia

The Colonial Secretary of Western Australia was one of the most important and powerful public offices in Western Australia, in the time when Western Australia was a British colony. The Colonial Secretary was the representative of the British Colonial Office in Western Australia, and was usually...

.

Birds

Lake Barlee, along with some small satellite lakes, has been identified by BirdLife International

BirdLife International

BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...

 as a 1937 km² Important Bird Area

Important Bird Area

An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...

 (IBA) because it has supported one of the largest recorded breeding events of the Banded Stilt

Banded Stilt

The Banded Stilt is a nomadic stilt from Australia. It belongs to the monotypical genus Cladorhynchus. It gets its name from the red-brown breast band found on breeding adults, but this is mottled or entirely absent in non-breeding adults and juveniles. Its remaining plumage is pied and the eyes...

, with 179,000 nests counted. Other waterbirds known to have bred at the lake are Black Swan

Black Swan

The Black Swan is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic...

s, Australian Shelduck

Australian Shelduck

The Australian Shelduck, Tadorna tadornoides, is a shelduck, a group of large goose-like birds which are part of the bird family Anatidae, which also includes the swans, geese and ducks. The Anatidae article should be referred to for an overview of this group of birds.This is a bird which breeds...

s, Pink-eared Duck

Pink-eared Duck

The Pink-eared Duck is a species of duck found in Australia.It has a large spatulate bill like the Australasian Shoveler, but is smaller at 38–40 cm length. Its brown back and crown, black and white barred sides and black eye patches on its otherwise white face make this bird unmistakable...

s, White-headed Stilt

White-headed Stilt

The White-headed Stilt or Pied Stilt is a bird in the Recurvirostridae family. It is sometimes treated as a distinct species Himantopus leucocephalus, sometimes included in the Common or Black-winged Stilt as Himantopus himantopus leucocephalus.This shorebird is found in Australia, Brunei,...

s and Red-capped Plover

Red-capped Plover

The Red-capped Plover , also known as the Red-capped Dotterel, is a small plover. It breeds in Australia. The species is closely related to the Kentish Plover, Javan Plover and White-fronted Plover.-Description:Red-capped Plovers have white underparts and forehead...

s.