
Local farmer Stan Prideaux’s recollection of the lakes during the depression states ‘One pleasant recollection from those days was the state of the environment. The lake systems were generally full each year. Timber in and around the lakes was alive and the water only slightly brackish. Waterfowl abounded in the lakes – swans, ibis, heron, duck, water hen and other. Ground birds and birds of the forest were also plentiful – plovers, ground larks, sky larks, curlew, parrots, galahs, swallows, quail, black and white fantails – to mention some’. Source: Nomans Lake a Collection of Memories. Heidi Astbury and Lyn Chadwick 1987.
Today the lake beds are bare or dotted with dead trees and salt tolerant plants, but vegetation in surrounding uncleared land is often in excellent condition. The area is seldom visited because few lakes can be reached by road and surrounding saline areas are uninviting. With much walking I discovered starkly beautiful and varied salt lakes in a range of landscapes with surrounding areas of saline flats and often attractive healthy woodland.

The Arthur River is ancient and begins in the old plateau sandplain landscape east of Toolibin before passing between uplands associated with the Binneringie Dyke to the North and a large ridge associated with the Buchanan River to the south. A chain of lakes merged into the extensive Narrogin Valley flats, then narrowing as it passes into the Darling Range to Join the Blackwood. The river system tributaries and associated uplands frequently run in northwest-southeast and southwest-northeast patterns, which reflect fractures in the underlying crystalline bedrock caused by repeated supercontinent collision and separation cycles.
There is a paleochannel (buried river) system 300m wide and 40m deep beneath Toolibin lake and extending approximately five kilometres upstream in a north-westerly direction. Paleochannel sediments are about three million years old, which coincides with uplift of the Darling Range.
The lake system ends immediately above the intersection of the Yilliminning and Arthur Rivers. From that point the Arthur River channel becomes more actively flowing and highly saline. Much of the valley containing the lakes has healthy natural vegetation and mild salinity. A farmer told me that the lakes filled upstream from Little White Lake. Perhaps this coincides with flooding of the Yilliminning River.
An exaggerated terrain map I created shows that Ibis to Noman lakes pass through a gap between uplands on either side. I think that faulting and uplift possibly associated with from the Darling Range uplift reduced river slope where it joined the Yilliminning River and promoted lake formation. Some lakes are separated by dolerite dykes.

The following hyperlinks contain information on Lake Toolibin and salt lake formation as illustrated by Lake Taarblin.
Cars can drive to the southern end of Taarblin from Williams Kondinin and Lakes roads. The lake was a popular water skiing, fishing, and picnic spot before it became saline. Taarblin is an enormous lake, which is separated from Ibis Lake to the south by a barrier formed by a dolerite dyke and adjoining heat-hardened granite. The dyke is exposed on the steep red clay southeast bank. and boulders from the adjoining granite are artfully scattered on the shoreline. If you look closely you will find shells of tiny snails, which I also found in other lakes in the chain that fill most often. Good spot for landscape artists and photographers

Aha, this is probably due to another geological influence on the lake system. Likely causes are the South Coast Jarrahwood Axis uplift, and the Australian Plate slowly subsiding beneath Indonesia, causing the continent to tip down to the north. Ancient rock platforms on the south coast indicate that the coast has risen by about 130 metres in the last 20 million years or so.
White Lake is a forbidding site - a large circular and mostly bare area with a compacted floor ringed by low dunes. The lake directly adjoins a rise on its north side and only receives water when the main channel to its south flows. Clouds of acrid dust were blowing fom the lake bed when I visited.
Woodland examples are shown below.