Pretty in Pink Again for a Lake in Melbourne

The Westgate Park in Port Melbourne has a lake in it. And at the moment, that lake is pink.

It’s not the first time it’s happened, either. According to Parks Victoria the colour change is “a natural phenomenon in response to very high salt levels, high temperatures, sunlight and lack of rainfall”.

“Algae growing in the salt crust at the bottom of the lake produces the red pigment as part of its photosynthesis process and in responses to the extremely high salt levels,” the government agency explains.

The pink colour will remain until closer to winter when temperatures drop and rain increases.

Feel free to take selfies but don’t touch the water, Parks Victoria says.

"It's so salty and muddy on the bottom that you would come out looking like a frosted rum ball, especially when you dried," says Dr Mark Norman, chief conservation scientist for Parks Victoria. "The salt would dry as hard crystals all over your body. It would also be hard on your eyes, like sprinkling salt straight on your eyes.

The source of the salt in the lake is unknown, Norman says, but is likely from underground seawater leaching in from Port Phillip Bay and "the salty end of the Yarra River".

parkweb.vic.gov.au