Hutt Lagoon

Hutt Lagoon is a shallow salt lake running along the coast behind a dune barrier near Port Gregory, and its colour comes from Dunaliella salina, a micro-alga that produces beta-carotene as protection against the intense light and salinity, turning the water anything from lilac to bright bubblegum pink depending on the season, cloud cover and time of day. The alga is harvested commercially here on a large scale as a source of beta-carotene, so parts of the lake are working ponds. The road from Northampton to Port Gregory runs directly alongside, with pull-offs, and the pink is most intense in the middle of the day under clear sky.

History

The lagoon was named by the explorer George Grey, who camped on its eastern edge on 4 April 1839 during his second, disastrous expedition along the Western Australian coast. Seeing it in the wet season, he took it for a large estuary and named "the river and estuary now discovered" after William Hutt, a British politician involved in colonising Western Australia and brother of the colony's governor, John Hutt. When the colonial schooner Champion was sent to investigate in January 1840, it found the Hutt River dry at its mouth and could not locate Grey's great estuary (Wikipedia, Hutt Lagoon).

The landscape

• The pink water - the lake in shades from lilac to bright pink.
• The roadside pull-offs - viewpoints directly beside the water.
• The harvesting ponds - the commercial beta-carotene operation on the lake.
• The coastal contrast - pink lake, white dunes and blue ocean in a narrow strip.

When to go

April to November for comfortable weather; the colour is strongest around midday in clear conditions, and washes out under cloud or at low sun, the opposite of most landscape photography advice. Colour intensity varies through the year.

Good to know

The pink is often paler than photographs suggest, and heavily edited images set unrealistic expectations. Walking onto the lake surface is prohibited in the commercial areas. There are no facilities beyond roadside stops, and Port Gregory is tiny.

Nearby

Port Gregory is on the coast alongside; Kalbarri lies north and Northampton inland.

Key facts