Friday, September 17, 2021

Lake Ballard

Arrived in here mid morning and just what a place to behold. It's a really large salt lake that occasionally floods and it's dotted with little islands. Allegedly there's a bird called a pied stilt that breeds here in huge numbers when it does flood which is only about 20 times in the last 200 years so it's a bit of a mystery what the bird does in between. 

The reason we visited was cos of the John Gormley art installation which consists of 51 sculptures made from a mix of stainless steel and the local materials from the lake so the sculptures take on the colour of the surrounding rocks. Each sculpture is a representation of a local indigenous person who was scanned as part of the process. The sculptures are a kind of dark brown/rust and the salt lake is mostly white surface as it's dry at the moment so they stand out for miles. Each sculpture is placed about 500m away from the next one and you can walk between them. When we arrived we could see heaps and the mirages made some of them look like they were floating. We walked way out onto the lake but on the way back you couldn't see the sculptures till you got right up to them as they blended in with the shore colours. The kids were fascinated ... And also by the spiders living on the lake surface which built almost plastic looking webs. Intriguing place well worth a visit. You can also camp there and it's a really nice, free camp ground with beautiful old trees (can't remember what type!) set amongst the red sand dunes. Very special place.

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