Lake Frome

The Lake Frome is a salt lake in South Australia, located east of the northern Flinders Ranges. It is a shallow endorheisches waters without vegetation, 100 km long and 40 km wide, located in the sedimentary basins of the Lake Eyre Basin below sea level. The surface of the salt lake covers 2596.15 km ². The lake is rarely fed by waters of the most desolate valleys from the west of the Flinders Ranges, or from the Strzelecki Desert in the north. The brackish water lake is named after Edward Charles Frome, who charted the area in 1843.

Location

The salt lake extends to the west of the Vulkathunha -Gammon Ranges National Park and adjacent to the Lake Callabonna, the Salt Creek in the north, the southern Strzelecki Desert in the East and the agricultural Frome Downs to the south. The region in which the salt lake is rarely fall precipitation and it is sparsely populated, the nearest settlement to the lake is the Arkaroola Village, about 40 kilometers northwest from the lakeshore. Two major uranium deposits at Lake Frome are currently being explored in order then to tap into a uranium mining; it is these which Beverley deposits in the northwest and Honeymoon in the southeast of the lake.

Because of its "regional geological significance" ( German: " regional geological significance " ) was declared the Lake Frome to a protected area (IUCN Category VI) 1991.

Accessibility

The access road to the Lake Frome is only with all-wheel drive vehicles on a simple slope possible which leads from the headquarters, a former shearers hall, Vulkathunha -Gammon Ranges National Park from the Balcanoonastation ( Virlkundhunha ) from 30 km west. The road to Lake Frome then crosses flat, rocky terrain and follows the Balcanoona Creek the fully protected arid catchment area .. After crossing the Moomba - Adelaide gas pipeline and the dingo fence leading the way over flat sand dunes before the western shore of Lake Frome is achieved. The protected area, which opens up the slope, has been declared a cultural zone in which chase the ancestral Aborigines of Adnyamathanha between 15:00 clock and early morning 5.00 clock. During this time, a public vehicular access to the area is prohibited.

Dreamtime

The Lake Frome is a part of the local dreamtime that tell the Aborigines of Adnyamathanha about the geology and the species of the region. The Lake Frome has been created and drunk by the Rainbow Serpent - called Akurra that the Arkaroola Creek meandered there. Because of this dreamtime story Adnyamathanha the surface of the dry lake not enter.