The Pink Lakes are so named because of their colour during late summer. A red pigment, carotene, is secreted from the algae - best seen early or late in the day or when it is cloudy. The lakes evaporate over summer leaving concentrated salt crusts over black mud.

Commercial salt harvesting began in the Pink Lakes area in 1916, using shovels and wheel-barrows. For more than twenty years camel teams transported the salt away from the area.