Mystery of the rusting machine in the middle of a Mallee salt lake

For decades, visitors have wondered how and why an old grader has sat in the middle of a 208 sqkm ephemeral salt lake in Victoria. Finally we have an answer.

The abandoned grader on Lake Tyrrell. Photo: Jonathan Holliday

Like many visitors to Lake Tyrrell, a 208 sqkm ephemeral salt lake in Victoria’s Mallee region, Jonathan Holliday waxes lyrical about the ­experience. “It’s a vast, flat expanse, with all sorts of interesting colours and textures in the salt ­surface – and the most amazing skies,” he says. “There’s a spiritual feel to the place.” On calm days when the lake is ankle-deep in water, the famous Sky Mirror effect turns on. And on a recent trip, Holliday put up his drone and shot this old grader that has sat out in the middle of the lake for decades, slowly rusting away.

Holliday left his native New Zealand aged 22 for a working holiday in England, and ended up staying for 35 years. In 2011, he and his wife Elaine moved to Australia, intending to stay briefly while he reconnected with family – and they’re still here today, living in ­Sydney’s north, semi-retired and deeply involved in the Hornsby Heights Camera Club (“Elaine is a much better photographer than me,” he says modestly). Holliday, 71, spent his career in civil engineering, working on everything from the London Olympics infrastructure to Western Sydney International Airport.

So, how did this grader end up in such an unusual place? Commercial salt mining has long been a thing at Lake Tyrrell; Australia’s largest salt producer, Cheetham, still operates there, harvesting salt from the dry lake bed in summer and sending it off to be used in swimming pools, the hide tanning industry and as the raw material in the production of chlorine (which in turn is used in the manufacturing of plastics and paper), among other things. Several decades ago, three blokes from the nearby town of Sea Lake decided they “wanted to strike it rich”, says Julie Pringle, owner of Sea Lake Tyrrell Tours. It was a dream that didn’t end well. “They were going to use this grader to harvest the salt,” she says. “But it got stuck, they cracked it, and sold up.