Lake Gregory is a salt lake in northern South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

. It lies to the west of Lake Blanche

Lake Blanche

Lake Blanche is a salt lake in central South Australia. It lies below sea level. It forms part of the Strzelecki Desert Lakes Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for waterbirds when holding water in the aftermath of floods....

; to the east the Birdsville Track

Birdsville Track

The Birdsville Track is a notable outback road in Australia. The 517 km track runs from Marree, a small town in northern South Australia, north across the Tirari Desert and Sturt Stony Desert, ending in Birdsville in south western Queensland....

 runs in between it and Lake Eyre

Lake Eyre

Lake Eyre is the lowest point in Australia, at approximately below sea level, and, on the rare occasions that it fills, it is the largest lake in Australia and 18th largest in the world...

. It is named after the explorer Augustus Charles Gregory, who first passed by it in 1858. Originally Lake Eyre was named Lake Gregory by B. H. Babbage, but the names were modified by Governor Richard Graves MacDonnell

Richard Graves MacDonnell

Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell KCMG CB was an Anglo-Irish lawyer, judge and colonial governor...

, who preferred to name the former after the famous explorer who first investigated the region twenty years prior, Edward John Eyre

Edward John Eyre

Edward John Eyre was an English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, and a controversial Governor of Jamaica....

. The lake forms part of the Strzelecki Desert Lakes Important Bird Area

Strzelecki Desert Lakes Important Bird Area

The Strzelecki Desert Lakes Important Bird Area comprises a series of ephemeral waterbodies in the arid Strzelecki Desert of the Far North region of South Australia...

, identified as such 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...

 because of its importance for waterbirds when holding water in the aftermath of floods.