Lake Hillier

Lake Hillier

Lake Hillier, is a lake on Middle Island, it is the largest of the islands that make up the Recherche Archipelago, Western Australia.

This lake has pink colour. The colour is permanent, and does not alter when the water is taken in a container. The length of the lake is about six hundred metres. The lake is surrounded by a rim of sand and a dense woodland  with a narrow strip of sand dunes covered by vegetation separating it to the north from the Southern Ocean.

John Thistle, collected some of the lake's water, which he found to be saturated with salt. Although the source of the pink colour has not been definitively proven in the case of Lake Hillier. Another hypothesis is that the pink colour is due to red halophilic bacteria in the salt crusts.

Despite the unusual hue, the lake exhibits no known adverse effects upon humans. From above, the lake appears a solid bubble gum pink, but from the shoreline it appears more of a clear pink hue. The shoreline is also covered in salt crust deposits.