Lake Ballard is one of many vast ephemeral lakes in the Eastern Goldfields. For most of the year, the lake bed is dry and covered in a shell of salt.
.jpg "Lake Ballard Sunrise")
.jpg "Sky over Lake Ballard")
Near the southwest edge of Lake Ballard a conical hill rises so sharply from the flat lake bed that it looks unnatural, but it is natural and is part of the Ngulutjara women’s dreaming of the Seven Sisters. The place looks and feels like a sacred site.
.jpg "Conical Hill")
The bands of coloured stone at the base of the hill add to the unnatural look of the place.
.jpg "Bands of Colour")
Around the hill, stand small figures – part of the installation Inside Australia by Antony Gormley – 51 steel figures standing across 10 square kilometres of the lake bed.
.jpg "Conical Hill & Figures")
.jpg "Lake Ballard Dawn")
.jpg "Here Comes The Sun")
.jpg "Inside Australia at Dawn")
From a distance, the plants around the lake’s edge look like rocks and up close they look like a type of seaweed.
.jpg "Lake Edge Under Dark Sky")
.jpg "Samphire, Lake Ballard")
.jpg "Delicate Plant, Lake Ballard")
We stayed one night beside the lake, and magpies sang whenever the moon came out from behind the clouds. They have one of the loveliest songs. I didn’t know they sang at night. Apparently it’s a territorial display in Spring. It was beautiful and quite eery.
.jpg "Moon Over Lake Ballard")
