Cooleman Ridge Nature Reserve pond turns red

"I got quite a surprise at just how pink it was," she exclaims.

For those not aware, the #pinklake tag is a popular on Instagram with some people travelling thousands of kilometres just to take selfies at Australia's pink lakes, especially in Western Australia.

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No matter whether you call this 1950s dam in the outskirts of Chapman; pink, or red, when Rose Higgins of Kambah, heard of the technicolored water surface, she couldn't wait to check it out.

Regular readers may recall it was the Kambah nature-lover who beat a path to the large patch of fluoro yellow moss (Funaria hygrometrica) growing in in Namadgi National Park back in 2020 (Namadgi: From Black to Technicolor, September 19, 2020).

"I just love dressing up to accentuate the colour of nature," says Rose, who donned the same retro garb including, red umbrella and shiny red patent boots for her Chapman bush walk.

While the pink colour in the lakes in WA are mainly due to a high concentration of salt, according to Professor Fiona Dyer at the University of Canberra, the generous splash of red in this dam is Ferny Azolla (Azolla pinnata), a floating native water fern that is usually green but that when conditions are right - low phosphorus or lots of sunlight - can grow prolifically in healthy, still water bodies.

If want to grab a selfie at #Canberrasredlake then beat a path to the dam, which is stop number 8 on the 2.7km Cooleman Trig Nature Trail, but don't wait too long for as Dyer warns "it'll likely die off over winter".

And before you ask, the pond on the corner of Haydon Drive and Eardley Street in Bruce where azolla has previously gained notoriety is currently nowhere near as spectacular as this Chapman Dam.

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