Lake Callabonna

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Lake Callabonna from space
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Lake Callabonna from space

Lake Callabonna (29°41′ 140°03′E) is a dry salt lake with little to no vegetation in South Australia.

The first pastoralists in the area were the Ragless brothers in 1881, who moved there from the northern Flinders Ranges, opening a sheep-run. In January 1892 Fred Ragless came across a number of giant skeletons embedded in the dry surface of the lake. An expedition partly funded by Sir Thomas Elder and E. C. Stirling, director of the South Australian Museum, was organised. After several visits, Stirling and A. H. Zietz collected a large number of diprotodon and dromornithidae skeletons. The area was designated a Fossil Reserve in 1901, and access is restricted.