[3] The townsite of Lake Clifton was developed in 1920 as a result of the W A Portland Cement Co. seeking to mine a lime deposit there.

A couple of roadhouses for passing trucks and motorists are located on Old Coast Road, while rural residential estates have sprung up at Tuart Grove.

The Yalgorup National Park was established in the 1970s to protect the coastal lakes, swamps and tuart woodland in the area.

At the edge of Lake Clifton, rock-like structures called thrombolites (similar to stromatolites) can be seen, built by tiny micro-organisms believed to resemble the earliest forms of life on Earth.

[3] An action has been started by the French artists "Art Orienté objet" in 2011 to list Lake Clifton as a World Heritage Site.