Lake Tyrrell Photo Spots

Lake Tyrrell is a salt lake in the far north west corner of Victoria, 3.5 hours from Melbourne, and 2.5 hours away from Mildura on the NSW border. To make a multi day excursion, this would be a great trip to build into the Silo Art Trail.

From Visit Victoria: The 120,000 year old lake is regarded as one of the best places in Australia for star navigation, with the dark and endless skies providing the perfect environment to view the dazzling spectacles of the southern hemispheres constellations. The unique salty formation on the lake bed has also become a mecca for international visitors looking to capture that once in a lifetime photo opportunity, over the shallow lake's refective surface.

Although I have only been to the lake once, from that one visit I know that it will be a place that I will return to time and time again. The photographic potential is just enormous as the seasons and conditions change. The lake is dry for most of the year, leaving a hard salty expanse as far as the eye can see. You may be lucky and find large pools of water that can be used to create the amazing mirrored shots that have become so popular. The best time to visit is late October through to November, when there is a higher chance of water, and the heat turns the algae in the lake pink. The area gets so dark at night that it makes a perfect scene for astro photography, although my visit was during a full moon, so I'll need to head back again. I was lucky to get some fantastic sunsets that gave beautiful colour to the lake.

When you get to the lake, there is an old viewing platform near the entrance, then a brand new toilet block and viewing platform just after that. You can park here and walk down the the first boardwalk to explore, or you can keep driving to get to the new boardwalk shown above. I guess it all depends on where the water is on the day. As the lake is so shallow, the wind can blow the water from one side to the other.

I recommend you get in touch with Julie at Sea Lake Tyrrell Tours and have a chat about your plans for your visit. She offers sunrise, sunset and astro tours. Julie will take you down to the lake, talk about it's history and development, and then take you to the best spot on that current day to shoot the famous mirror shots. She'll gladly take your portrait or group portrait for a momento! If you are a more serious photographer, have a chat to Julie, I recommend only picking just one of the tours to get a good overview and then you should be ok by yourself. Let her know what kind of photography you want to do and she can assist with locations etc.

There is limited accommodation at Sea Lake, try Julie who also runs some accommodation, there are also a few other options online to book. The town was all booked up when I visited in late Dec, so I stayed at the next town out, Culgoa, at the Kaneira Hotel. Culgoa is a tiny town of around 100 people, a 30 minute drive out from the lake. The hotel is an old style country hotel, with small rooms and shared bathroom and shower. The rooms are air conditioned, have a fan and microwave. There's a shared fridge downstairs with all day tea, coffee and toast. Marty and Leigh run the hotel, they are great people, down to earth and friendly. They make a great pub dinner too. I felt safe, secure and looked after during my stay!

Salt

Lake Tyrrell is a salt lake, there is an active company extracting salt further around the lake, Cheetham Salt. It may look like sand or snow, or just water, but it is incredibly salty. I REALLY recommend gumboots if you are going to do any serious scouting more that a few meters from the viewing platform. Bring some water to rinse your hands or feet, and to drink. Be paranoid about your camera gear - if it goes into the water ... not good news. I wiped down my gear and cleaned my lenses as soon as I got back to the hotel. My hands got quite chapped after 2 days on the lake, so you may want to consider that if you have sensitive skin. On the last day I stepped near one of the fence posts (the left hand one in the image below). The salt water my foot went straight through into a quite deep puddle, into my gumboot and onto the chafing from two days of gumboot hiking. OUCH!!!

Sunrise

The sun rises from the east, when you are at the new viewing platform, that's to the right. The time I was there the lake around the platform was dry, so we walked 5 minutes or so towards the east where there is an old fence line covered in salt crystals. There were a few large pools of water here that made for great compositions. Also the sun rising just over the horizon illuminated some of the salt formations, making for some great detailed and close up shots

Sunset

The sun sets somewhere to the left and behind the viewing platform, so for sunsets you are best to walk our into the lake and shoot back towards the platform to capture the colours of the sky. I was rather lucky on my visit! There had been a dust storm that day, and storms brewing, but the clouds were high with a gap on the horizon. All the sediment and moisture in the air set the sky on fire - perfect! In the images below, you can see the water is quite choppy, and not the mirrored image you can see in the image above. It was quite a windy day, so I lost the mirror effect (and I left my filters at home so couldn't simulate it). Nevertheless, work with what you have!

Astro

This is going to need to wait until my next visit, there was too much cloud cover and a full moon, ruining my chances to create the images in my head. Fuel for next time!

Abandoned Industrial Objects

The land around the viewing platform and quite a way into the interior used to be salt works. This is why there are fence lines in the lake for example. There's lots of left over material on the shore line, or further out into the lake left over from earlier times. These make for GREAT compositional elements. The two below are my favourites, a left over dredge and road grader. They are a LONG way out into the lake, and will take hours to get to. In gumboots. Not fun. They are only for the most fearless to attempt. If you have your heart set on them, I really recommend getting in touch with Julie at Sea Lake Tyrrell tours, and booking an individual trip out there. That's the safest way to go.

Be Creative!

This is a spot that will give you new opportunities every time you go there with the change of conditions. No water? Make use of the vast expanse of dry salt plain. Water? Create some amazing mirrored images. Try abstracts, try close ups, try wide shots, try long exposures. This is a perfect place to play.