Ponton Creek and Lake Boonderoo

Hi there,

I went for a 5 day trip Perth to Perth via Ponton Creek and Lake Boonderoo.
Member Phil B and his nephew Peter came with me. I had my ute and the quad, Phil had his 100 series.

The plan was for me to ride my quad bike from where the Ponton crosses the Transline, all the way to Lake Boonderoo with Phil and Peter to meet me along the way at selected track junctions.

When we got to the start point it was suggested that we all try to drive down the creek together so this is what we did.





The creek was fairly easily traversed at first, with many parts of the creek having sand only. Later though, it became harder due to the amount of vegetation growing in the creek.



I would take the lead and guide the others through the creek.

We came across only one point where there was any water. There was a ridge of rock crossing the creek at right angles causing a pool of water, almost dry in the creek. Downstream of this point it was fairly muddy for a few hundred meters.





Where one track crossed the creek there was an old tractor 100 metres from the track, which looked like it had been through one or two floodings.





There was an old track found on the second day running parallel to the creek. This was not a well used track. Towards the end of the second day we almost exclusively used this track, even for me on the quad I found it necessary. It was far to slow going in the creek.



We came across a type of fungii (we think), one that we none of us have seen before. There were a number of examples in an area of a few hundred square meters. Out of this immediate area no further examples were seen.



In the creek there were many examples of dead trees. These would have drowned in perhaps the last flood in 1995.




Nearing the lake we deviated from the creek, instead choosing to utilise tracks to take us to the lake.

We visited the western side of the lake however saw no water and we camped south of the lake.



We reached what water there was from the eastern side, no without a bit of trouble (ask Phil).

There was what appeared to be crystalline structures around the shoreline. It seems that crystals build up over anything that is there, such as fallen trees.









It was great to visit this lake as it has only filled twice in recorded history. It would be a wonderful spectacle to see it in flood.

The whole area appears to be in a natural basin, you can see the high water mark in the following pictures taken from the high eastern ridge.





Permission is required from the pastoralist to visit this lake.

Cheers
Alan