Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.
The world famous Custard Lake in Australia supplies the entire state of South Australia with 90% of its annual custard requirements. Um, maybe.
Mmmm, custard . . .
My guess is that this is probably the bottom of a dry lake, as there’s other dry lagoons in the area - but I couldn’t say what causes the fantastic yellow colour. Can anyone else solve this mystery?
Thanks to Justin Flavin.
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it very well could be a lake used for salt production similar to these in the San Francisco Bay….
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
the color changes as the salt dries out more.
in the states, lots of lakes turn that color when they are low and mix a lot with the mud. Then again I don’t understand why this one would be that color because it doesn’t seem like it would be mixing all that fast with that small of a river flowing in
Slightly further south you get the Angel Delight lakes…
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
I like the fact you deemed necessary a Wiki link to the word custard… In italy they call it “crema Inglese” (English cream) While trifle is called “zuppa inglese” (English soup). Can anyone locate a mountain of that?
http://www.smh.com.au/news/south-australia/yorketown/2005/02/17/1108500204824.html
Yorketown is the little town south of there..looks like it’s a salt pond that still has a bit of water in it, and the algae, hence the hue.
it could be a certain kind of algea.
It could be sulfuric minerals as well causing that colour… but being from Canada I have no clue about the geology of Australia…
> Yorketown is the little town south of there
My mum grew up in Yorketown. I’ll ask her if she knows what the lake is. Or if she ever ran out of custard.
It’s what we call in Australia “a muddy dam”. They’re all like that. A bulldozer digs a hole in the ground, hole fills with water, water mixed with dirt is …. yes, muddy water. I don’t know how the rest of the world keeps it’s dams so clear.
As others have said, it’s most likely a muddy dam, although it could be a salt affected dry lake. The colours of the salt pans are incredible, particularly in this area of South Australia, or even in the area of Western Australia’s wheat belt that are hard hit by salinity. From a plane you actually see dams/ salt lakes in the most fantastic shades of pink, green, blue (and not a natural blue) and other colour combinations.
It’s a reflection of light on the surface. I’ve seen it before…
If you zoom out you see a pic from another time of year. Everything is green and the custard becomes blue… mmmm blue custard!!
It’s a dump for radioactive waste !
i’d say it’s sulfuric acid