Lake Torrens Colonel Robert Torrens who was one of the founders of the South Australian colony. The lake filled in 1897 and again in April 1989. The 1989 filling resulted in the lake outflowing through the Pirie-Torrens Corridor to the Spencer Gulf, suggesting it likely did so in 1897 as well. It has a thin salt crust with red-brown clays beneath, which are soft and boggy. The area around the lake is sparsely vegetated with samphire, saltbush and bluebush. In April 2013, the full extent of Lake Torrens was gazetted by the Government of South Australia as a locality with the name
Torrens Island to commission the new station during the first quarter of 2019, Torrens Island has been located within the boundaries of the following protected areas to varying extents since 1963, 1973 and 2005 respectively – the Torrens Island Conservation Park which covers all of the island down to low water with exception to the most of land associated with the former quarantine station and the land associated with the Quarantine Power Station and Torrens Island Power Stations, the Barker Inlet-St Kilda Aquatic Reserve which covers all of the east side of the island located below high water and the Adelaide Dolphin