Pink Lake, Big Skies
Lake MacDonnell had been sitting on our list for years — one of those places that always looked almost too good to be real. Pink water, dusty salt flats, and that dead-straight road dividing bubblegum and turquoise? Yes please.
We arrived under bright skies with the colours turned up to full. The pink wasn’t quite electric (the time of day, recent weather and algae levels all play a part), but it was still striking — soft, pastel hues that seemed to float above the surface. Paired with the vivid blue of the neighbouring lake and the stark white salt crust, the whole scene felt dreamlike. We drove slowly, windows down, soaking it in and pulling over every hundred metres for “just one more photo.”
It’s not a swim spot — more of a visual feast — but worth every bump in the road to get there.
Just down the road, Penong delivered another surprise: the Windmill Museum. Dozens of old windmills from across the country spin in the breeze like giant metal flowers. Some towered over us, others creaked like they had stories to tell. The museum’s free, and totally charming — a real celebration of rural ingenuity and outback resilience.
Among the standout displays is one of only three Comet windmills left in Australia — the largest windmill ever manufactured in the country. Towering over the others, it’s an impressive beast of engineering, and seeing it up close gives you a real appreciation for the role these giants played in keeping remote communities watered. It's not every day you get to stand beneath a piece of outback history like that.
We left Penong grinning. Between pink lakes and whirring windmills, this little corner of the Eyre Peninsula served up beauty, history, and a generous slice of outback character.
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