Lake Maurice (Carle-Thulka) - SA

  Lake,River,Creek

Position

DEG: -29.4353508 130.99994086
DMS: 29º 26' 7.26" S 130º 59' 59.78" E
UTM: 52 J 6742115mN 693993mE
Altitude: 193m

Description

Place Type

Geography - Lake,River,Creek

Location

939.95kms NorthWest of Adelaide

Address & Contact

Lake Maurice
South Australia 5710
Phone: N/A
Email: N/A
Web: N/A

Information

Lake Maurice (also known as Carle Thulka) is a salt lake in South Australia. It is the largest of many salt lakes in the eastern end of the Great Victoria Desert. It is normally dry, except during and after periods of heavy rainfall. When it is full, the lake covers an area of around 2,900 hectares (29 km2). It is part of the geological basin known as the Officer Basin. The smaller Lake Dey Dey is to the north. Since 1985, Lake Maurice is part of the lands belonging to the Maralinga Tjarutja, a southern branch of the Pitjantjatjara. The community of Oak Valley is near the western shore of the lake. The exposed surface of the lake normally consists of dry clay, silt or sand, covered with a salty crust.The area around Lake Maurice is very dry.

The lake is named after the explorer Richard Maurice. Maurice went on at least eight expeditions to the Great Victoria Desert between 1897 and 1903. He was not the first European to pass through this region: Ernest Giles and his team had explored the area almost 20 years before. Giles saw the lake in 1875, but he did not give it a name. He described the area as barren, and wrote that he and his team found no game between Lake Maurice and the Western Australian border. Maurice, in his own expeditions, recorded information and collected specimens on the plants, animals and geology of the area. In 1904, a mining surveyor named Frank George led a prospecting expedition through this region. He used Maurice's camels and equipment and travelled northwest of Lake Dey Dey and across the border to the salt lakes in Western Australia. George named Lake Maurice, and he reported that the area was not likely to contain anything suitable for mining.

The area around Lake Maurice was affected by the nuclear-weapon tests done during the 1950s. Dozens of Aboriginal families were removed from their ancestral lands and settled in towns far to the north (Ernabella), south (Yalata and Ooldea) and west (Cundeelee and Warburton). In the late 1940s, a single officer, Walter MacDougall, was sent to warn people in the area of the coming tests. The fallout from the hydrogen bombs was expected to harm or kill anyone within range. Officially, all were forced to leave their lands and were not allowed within 200 km of ground zero. Given that only one officer and an assistant were assigned to warn the people who lived across this huge area, many of the people were never informed, nor did they leave the area. Planes dropped information leaflets across the area, but the natives could not read the leaflets and were wary or afraid of the aircraft.
PlaceID72277
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Wildflowers

Weather

Closest Weather Station

Nullarbor at 29/05:00am CDT
Distance from Lake Maurice (Carle-Thulka) 223.99km S
TemperatureFeels LikeRel. HumidityDew PointPressureRainfallWind DirectionWind SpeedGusts
14.6°C13.8°C96%14.0°C1019.8hPa0.0mmESE11km/hr
6knots
15km/hr
8knots

Closest Climatic Station

Nullarbor
Distance from Lake Maurice (Carle-Thulka) 223.99km S
 JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Mean Max. °C27.927.826.524.821.418.818.219.622.424.326.026.7
Mean Min. °C15.716.114.111.68.96.35.15.87.910.212.414.2
Mean Rain mm11.113.221.822.429.730.227.324.517.818.216.815.3

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