Lake Mackay

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.

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.

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's Well to Wiluna.

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.

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. 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.

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 after Donald George Mackay.

Events

The lake was the birthplace of prominent Indigenous artist Linda Syddick Napaltjarri, and the area in which artist Ronnie Tjampitjinpa grew up.

A report published by ABC News in September 2024 observed that a 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 parrots, a 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 cats and Red foxes (but not dingoes), and, perhaps most importantly, a curfew on haulage over the private road that would serve the proposed mine.

Namesakes

The Northern Territory locality of Lake Mackay, whose boundaries include the lake, was named after it in 2007.

Mackay Lacus, one of the lakes on Saturn's moon Titan, is named after Lake Mackay.