Lake Hillier is Australia's mysterious pink lake, surrounded by forest and overlooking the ocean
Lake Hillier is the mysterious pink lake located on the island of Middle Island, in Western Australia, in the Australian Recherche archipelago, made up of 100 islands. Its particular color has made it famous all over the world, but to date no one knows what the reason is the waters of the lake are tinged with pink.
Every year millions of visitors arrive in Australia with the aim of admiring Lake Hillier. The landscape they find in front of them, once they reach their destination, is truly spectacular. The salt lake it is located at 600 meters from the ocean, from which it is separated by a strip of land. Its shape is very particular and resembles that of a human footprint, forming a small beach of sand and salt, surrounded by a eucalyptus forest.
The lake was discovered in 1802 and since then many have attempted to discover the secret of Lake Hillier. In fact, the color of the water is permanent and remains so even when it is poured into a container.
Some time ago, scholars analyzed it to understand its secrets and, according to some hypotheses, the pink color would be due to the presence of Dunaliella salina, an algae rich in carotenoids which has a bright red color. However, the correlation between the algae and the shade of the water has never been confirmed. According to some experts, the pink nuance could be attributed to the presence of salt in the Australian lake and the proliferation of some bacteria just as happens in Senegal for Lake Retba.
In fact, Lake Hillier is not the only pink lake in the world. There are several spread across the planet. In Spain there is the Torrevieja, whose salt waters have received the name of pink lake, while in Canada you can admire the Dusty Rose Lake, fed by water coming from purple-colored rocks, while in Azerbaijan there is Lake Masazir. Italy also has its pink lake: these are the Cervia salt pans which, in certain climatic conditions, take on a pink colour.
