If you should find yourself one day driving south along George Gray Drive coastal road towards Northampton in Western Australia, you could be forgiven for thinking you have caught a flash of pink in the corner of your eye, a flock of Flamingos feeding in a lagoon perhaps. Well you wouldn’t be too far off the mark as I’ll attempt to explain.

Hutt Lagoon, next to the small township of Gregory, is a salt lake created by a sand dune barrier separating the lagoon from the sea water of the Indian Ocean. Laying just below sea level, gravity allows sea water to seep into the lagoon where evaporation is the only way out and in the process leaving behind significant salt deposits. Rain water during the wet season helps keeps the salinity level in check.

Dunaliella Salina

The colour of the lagoon comes from a microscopic form of green algae known as Dunaliella salina, which has the ability to create high levels of beta carotene – a common and natural red food colouring, an antioxidant and source of vitamin A.

It is believed the colour helps protect the algae from the extreme ultra-violet radiation that is typical of the areas that the algae thrives. The quantity of beta carotene is at its highest during the spring and summer months when the UV radiation is at its most elevated causing the lagoon to take on a pink or reddish hue.

Hutt Lagoon supports commercial operations including the world’s largest microalgae production plant using artificial ponds to grow the algae for the food and cosmetics industry and Brine Shrimp farming for the fish, prawn and aquarium trade. Still want to use that red lipstick?

And the flamingos?

Beta carotene is the colour creating agent found naturally in crustacean, which includes shrimp and prawn – among the flamingos natural diet. It is added to food pellets given to captive flamingos in zoos around much of the world. It is also the reason the shell of crustacean turn red when cooked.

Depending on the time of day the best photographic point is either at the Pink Lake Lookout on the road to Gregory, or from the top of the hill just beyond the lookout. Just a few hundred metres further on and looking northwards, the lagoon is more easily accessible along a short path leading to the water’s edge where rocks in the shallow water are heavily encrusted with salt.

Hutt Lagoon creates an amazing spectacle for landscape photography and well worth a detour from the North West Coastal Highway.

Photo Tip:

Use of a circular polarising filter is recommended to reduce reflections on the lagoon. It also helps saturate the colour of the pink water and blue sky to more accurately capture what the eye sees.