Lake Torrens Lake Torrens. The full extent of Lake Torrens has been protected as a national park under the "National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972" since 1991. Lake Torrens is part of an area known as the "Inland Saline Lakes" which has been listed in the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia since at least 1995. Lake Torrens has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area known as the "Lake Torrens Important Bird Area" (IBA) because it supported up to 100,000 breeding banded stilts during the major filling event of 1989. It may occasionally support over 1% of the
Lake Torrens lake when filled with water and encompasses an area of . The Lake Torrens catchment is an endorheic basin, having no outflow of water to the ocean. Approximately 35,000 years ago, the lake water was fresh to brackish, but has become increasingly saline since. The traditional owners of the area are the Arabunna peoples to the north, the Kokatha to the west and the Kyuni to the east. The first European to see the lake was Edward Eyre in 1839 who spotted the salt bed from Mount Arden at the head of the Spencer Gulf. Eyre named the lake after