{{Short description|Ephemeral salt lake in Western Australia and Northern Territory, Australia}} {{for|the lake in Ottawa|McKay Lake (Ottawa)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}} {{Infobox body of water | name = Lake Mackay<br/>''(Wilkinkarra)'' | native_name ={{native name|piu|Wilkinkarra}} | image = lake mackay.jpg | image_size = 280 | caption = From space (November 1989) | pushpin_map = Australia | pushpin_map_alt = | pushpin_label_position = top | pushpin_map_caption = Location on the [[Northern Territory]] and [[Western Australia]]n border | image_bathymetry = | caption_bathymetry = | location = [[Western Australia]] and [[Northern Territory]] | coords = {{coord|22|30|S|128|35|E|region:AU_type:waterbody|display=inline,title}} | type = [[Salt lake]] | inflow = | outflow = | catchment = | basin_countries = Australia | length = {{convert|100|km|abbr=on}} | width = {{convert|100|km|abbr=on}} | area = {{convert|3494|km2|abbr=on}} | depth = | max-depth = | volume = | residence_time = | shore = | elevation = | islands = | cities = | mapframe = yes | mapframe-zoom = 8 }} '''Lake Mackay''', known as '''Wilkinkarra''' to the Indigenous [[Pintupi]] people, is the largest of hundreds of [[Ephemerality#Geographical_features|ephemeral]] [[salt lake]]s scattered throughout the [[Pilbara]] and northern parts of the [[Goldfields-Esperance]] region of [[Western Australia]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/geographic-information/landforms/largest-waterbodies|title=Largest Waterbodies|date=15 May 2014|accessdate=15 March 2015|publisher=[[Geoscience Australia]]}}</ref> and the [[Northern Territory]]. It is located on the edge of the [[Great Sandy Desert]].
The lake is the largest in Western Australia and has a surface area of {{convert|3494|km2|sqmi|0|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ga.gov.au/education/geoscience-basics/landforms/largest-waterbodies.jsp|title=Australian Geoscience - Largest Waterbodies|year=2009|accessdate=2009-03-07|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226061106/http://www.ga.gov.au/education/geoscience-basics/landforms/largest-waterbodies.jsp|archivedate=26 February 2009|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Its elevation ranges between {{convert|355|m|ft|abbr=on}} and {{convert|370|m|ft|abbr=on}} above mean sea-level.<ref>[http://www.ga.gov.au/elvis/ Geoscience Australia elevation data portal]</ref>
==Description== Lake Mackay is the fourth largest lake in Australia.<ref>[http://www.lrm.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/13889/52_lakemackay.pdf Northern Territory Department of Land Resource Management, Information Page - Lake Mackay] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321041059/http://lrm.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/13889/52_lakemackay.pdf |date=21 March 2015 }}</ref> It measures approximately {{convert|100|km|sigfig=1|abbr=on}} east-west and north-south. The darker areas of the lakebed are indicative of some form of desert vegetation or [[algae]], some moisture within the soils of the dry lake, and the lowest elevations where pooling of water occurs. In this [[arid]] environment, salts and other minerals are carried to the surface through capillary action caused by [[evaporation]], thereby producing the white reflective surface. Visible are various brown hills scattered across the eastern half of the lake and east-west-oriented sand ridges south of the lake.
== Encounters == Explorer David Carnegie in 1897 predicted the lake's existence when he passed by it to the west as quoted in his book ''Spinifex and Sand''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Spinifex and Sand |url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks/e00042.html}}</ref> {{blockquote|May 9th we left the well on a Southerly course, and were soon amongst the ridges, which continued for the next two days. The night of the 11th, having skirted a line of rough cliffs, we camped about three miles North of a very prominent single hill, which I named Mount Webb, after W. F. Webb, Esq., of Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire. As the sun rose that morning the mirage of a lake of apparently great size was visible for 90° of the horizon — that is, from East round to South. Neither from the cliffs that we skirted, nor from Mount Webb, was any lake visible, but it is more than probable that a large salt lake exists in this locality, possibly connecting, in a broken line, Lake White and Lake Macdonald.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}|title=|source=}}
The lake was first charted by Christopher Walker. He and Andy Everett came upon the mid-eastern side on Tuesday 15 April 1913, while on a prospecting expedition west from [[Ryan Well Historical Reserve|Ryan's Well]] to [[Wiluna, Western Australia|Wiluna]].<blockquote>Looking westward all that I could see was mirage for miles which appeared like large sheets of water. … After leaving the hill & going west for two miles we struck on our right an arm of the lake. At this point the lake was dry & exposed a thin layer of very white salt. … We then followed the arm of the lake westward. In another two miles along the arm it wheeled around to the south. … From this position looking north at what first looked like land on the other side, was only an island in the lake. Going a little further south gave us a better view of the islands. These islands would be distant from near shore from one up to four miles. Looking westward between the islands the lake could plainly be seen for many miles westward. This part of the lake we could not see water only large salt plains, which had the appearance of a large plain after a snow storm.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=Diary -- Walker Bros Prospecting Expedition 1913 |publisher=Hesperian Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-85905-727-1 |editor-last=Long |editor-first=Jeremy |location=Carlisle, WA |pages=123–132 |language=en |chapter=Appendix 4: Lake Mackay |editor-last2=Nash |editor-first2=David}}</ref></blockquote>It was next reported by the 1930 Mackay Aerial Survey Expedition, after the survey aircraft flew over on 5 June 1930. Then Michael Terry and party reached the north-eastern corner of Lake Mackay by camel in August 1932.<ref>21 August 1932 entry, camp 35. Log of Michael Terry leader of the Emu Mining Company expedition 1932. Transcribed by Brian A. Rutherford, 5 November 1994. SA Museum Archives AA 333/6/4 A-C. http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/aa333/AA%20333-06.htm</ref> Terry mentioned two reports which may have been of the same lake, prior to Mackay’s 1930 survey: Afghan cameleer Rawazan in 1904, and the prospector Jimmy Wyckham in 1925.<ref name=":0" />
Lake Mackay was approved as a name both in the Northern Territory and in Western Australia by the Minister for the Interior, Canberra, on 13 March 1934<ref>{{Cite web |last=Department of Lands Planning and the Environment, Northern Territory Government |title=Lake Mackay |url=http://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/placenames/view.jsp?id=14314 |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=NT Place Names Register}}</ref> after [[Donald George Mackay]].
== Events == The lake was the birthplace of prominent Indigenous artist [[Linda Syddick Napaltjarri]],<ref name="Birnberg216">{{cite book|last=Birnberg|first=Margo|author2=Janusz Kreczmanski |title=Aboriginal Artist Dictionary of Biographies: Australian Western, Central Desert and Kimberley Region|publisher=J.B. Publishing|location=Marleston, South Australia|year=2004|page=216|isbn=1-876622-47-4}}</ref> and the area in which artist [[Ronnie Tjampitjinpa]] grew up.<ref>{{cite book|last=McCulloch|first=Alan |author2=Susan McCulloch |author3=Emily McCulloch Childs|title=The new McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art|publisher=Aus Art Editions in association with The Miegunyah Press|location=Fitzroy, Victoria|date=2006|isbn=0-522-85317-X|page=159}}</ref>
A report published by [[ABC News (Australia)|ABC News]] in September 2024 observed that a [[Potassium sulfate|sulphate of potash]] mine proposed for Lake Mackay, and supported by local Aboriginal communities, might present environmental challenges to a newly detected population of [[night parrot]]s, a [[Critically Endangered|critically endangered]] species, in the nearby [[Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area]]. However, the report also noted that [[Agrimin]], the promoter of the proposed mine, was planning conservation measures including fire management, a control program for [[Feral cat]]s and [[Red fox]]es (but not dingoes), and, perhaps most importantly, a curfew on haulage over the private road that would serve the proposed mine.<ref name="abc 2024-09-23">{{cite news |last1=de Kruijff |first1=Peter |title=Australia's largest night parrot population may be protected by dingoes, but mining in remote WA habitat planned |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-09-23/desert-dingoes-night-parrot-population-conservation/104170308 |access-date=2024-10-05 |work=[[ABC News (Australia)|ABC News]] |date=2024-09-23 |language=en-AU}}</ref>
== Namesakes ==
The Northern Territory locality of [[Lake Mackay, Northern Territory|Lake Mackay]], whose boundaries include the lake, was named after it in 2007.<ref name="NT-Placenames">{{cite web| title=Place Names Register Extract for Lake Mackay (locality)|url= http://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/placenames/view.jsp?id=22361|website= NT Place Names Register|publisher=Northern Territory Government|access-date= 13 January 2020}}</ref>
[[Mackay Lacus]], one of the [[lakes of Titan|lakes on Saturn's moon Titan]], is named after Lake Mackay.<ref name = "USGS">{{cite web |title=Mackay Lacus |work=USGS planetary nomenclature page] |publisher=[[USGS]] |url=https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/14318 |accessdate=28 December 2013}}</ref>
== Gallery == <gallery widths="150px"> Lake MacKay Australia.jpg|2017 satellite photograph taken by Copernicus [[Sentinel-2B]] </gallery>
==See also== {{stack|{{Portal|Western Australia}}}} * [[List of lakes of Australia]] * [[Lake Mackay hare-wallaby]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackay}} [[Category:Lakes of the Pilbara (Western Australia)]] [[Category:Lakes of the Kimberley (Western Australia)]] [[Category:Great Sandy Desert]] [[Category:Saline lakes of Western Australia|Mackay, Lake]] [[Category:Saline lakes of the Northern Territory]]