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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Environment
Adam Morton with photography by Blake Sharp-Wiggins

Outback kaleidoscope: Australia’s fabled desert lake bursts to life in rare sight

An island in the outback inland sea, surrounded by green water
An arresting sight: green water surrounds Silcrete Island in South Australia’s vast Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

The Australian desert is green. Not just green – depending on where you look from above, it could also be a marbled reddy-pink and blue or yellow-brown with flecks of purple. But green is the most striking colour because the desert is not supposed to look like this.

It won’t last. But for now, in late September, the deep outback – a celebrated part of the Australian continent that few people get to see – is blanketed in plant life. There is sandhill wattle, saltbush and lignum, and grasses and desert flowers. The vegetation is thickest along hundreds of twisting rivers and creeks that cut across the landscape.

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