Client: Buloke Shire Council
Collaboration: Morton Dunn Architects, Cardno TGM Engineers, Challis Signage Design, CP Group, MP Cordia & Associates
Status:  Design completed 2019. Contract administration and construction completed in December 2020

The Lake Tyrrell Tourism Infrastructure Design project started well before the project brief was released by the Buloke Shire in 2017.  Julie Pringle, a Sea Lake local recognised the tourism potential of Lake Tyrrell and publicised the lake on Chinese social media including photos of the beautiful pink lake with amazing day and night sky reflections.
Shortly after, Chinese tourists began arriving in the northern Victorian town of Sea Lake (6 kilometres south of Lake Tyrrell) by coachload to find a town and lake with few facilities for tourists and limited accommodation.

The tourists were not daunted by the lack of facilities and kept arriving.  Problems both in the Sea Lake township and at the lake began to occur - uncontrolled pedestrian and vehicle access, vegetation destruction, no signage, bogged vehicles and bush toileting were having negative impacts on the lake environment.  Visitors accessing the salt-crusted lake surface had to first cross a slimy, black muddy margin.  Running water was the only way to remove mud from footwear.  The closest facility for cleaning was the Sea Lake service station - their toilets were regularly blocked by Lake Tyrrell mud.
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With support from Regional Development Victoria, the Buloke Shire prepared a brief and shortly after that we felt honoured to be awarded this project as we could see its absolute need and understood the potential benefit that the struggling Mallee town of Sea Lake would receive by having high-quality, well-designed tourist facilities at the lake.  We worked on the project from consultation to the final handover of built works.

The site is extensive, with the main carpark and toilets/viewing platform 1500 metres from the lake. The clearly defined paths and boardwalks allow visitors to comfortably and safely experience the expansiveness, remoteness, harshness and uniqueness of this beautiful environment.  Interpretive signs describe the site’s cultural history, night sky, flora, fauna and the salt mining industry that has existed for over 120 years.  Lake Tyrrell (Direl) is sacred to the Boorong people.  This is where Creation (Dreaming) stories that connect Country, People, Time and Sky were celebrated through reflections of stars on the lake.

Our design considered the site use during both day and night – with regular visitation after midnight to experience the best night sky.
Other than the toilet/viewing platform, the main features of the project are located on and adjoining the lake, including a circular jetty extending 75 metres into the lake.  The jetty has been described as ‘hauntingly beautiful’, and was designed to allow photographs of people and cloud/sky reflections from the jetty, over the water, in any direction. 
Adjoining the jetty is a ‘sky lounge’ that consists of single and double lounge seats arranged in a circle on the organic-shaped pavement to allow visitors to comfortably view the entire night sky. 
The 2000mm high corten ‘TYRRELL’ letters were designed for social media promotion, with lake views in the background.  We love seeing social media posts of visitors interacting with the lake, TYRRELL letters, sky lounge and jetties.
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The most important aspect of this project, and what means most to us as regional-based landscape architects, is the positive economic impact on Sea Lake – even with the lingering Covid-influence on travellers.  There is now a feeling of optimism in town, with new businesses and accommodation opening to service the increasing tourist numbers.  Lake Tyrrell, as a well-serviced visitor destination combined with the silo art trail, is the reason for the turn-around in fortunes for Sea Lake, which previously was just another dying country town, with little opportunity for employment outside of the increasingly industrialised agricultural industry.

Photography: Anne Morley, THLA, Street Furniture Australia