A great salt lake in central South Australia, with a total area of 3,700 square miles (9,300 square km). It lies in the southwestern corner of the Great Artesian Basin, a closed inland basin about 440,150 square miles (1,140,000 square km) in area that is drained only by intermittent streams. Normally dry but susceptible to occasional flooding, the lake constitutes the lowest point on the Australian continent. Lake Eyre was first sighted by a European in 1840—Edward John Eyre, after whom it was named. The lake’s extent had been determined by the 1870s.