Lake Eyre Basin

The Lake Eyre basin is a large, mostly flat, arid and semi-arid area that covers just under one-sixth of all Australia. It is the largest endorheic basin in Australia and one of the largest in the world. The basin began as a sinking landmass mostly covered by forest and contained many more lakes than now. The climate has changed from wet to arid over the last 60 million years. During years of especially high rainfall, all the riverbeds in this vast area lead inland towards Lake Eyre in central S

The Lake Eyre Basin is about the size of France, Germany, and Italy combined. The basin supports about 60,000 people and a large amount of wildlife, with low-density grazing being the major land use, occupying 82% of the total land within the basin. Other lakes in the basin include Lake Frome, Lake Yamma Yamma and Lake Hart. A total of 27 individual species of fish are found in the Lake Eyre basin,