Aussie Odyssey Take 2

I’ve created a new blog to record our 2022 travels. Two adventures already under our belts and preparing for more! Please check in to hwheat2022.blogspot.com to read about our travels through ancient Australia in April and then follow us as we head back to the Arctic in July.

Then it was time to turn our wheels southwards towards home with some some concerns about returning to virus-infested NSW and Victoria but the time had come. You might be amused that we took the Omicron Road (see my green markup) out of Innamincka. Rather prophetic you might think but we didn’t take it as such. Undaunted we drove on all day along a beautiful remote desert road passing only 1 car as we went.

White puffy clouds hung suspended like stage props in a cerulean dome thrown across an endlessly changing vista of multi coloured dunes, vegetation, some camels and a few emus - and yes a few flowers but it was too hot for yours truly to venture out for too long. The heat aside, it was kind of day we love.

The Warri Gate (seen here from the NSW side looking back towards Qld) was not welcoming but through it we went. We arrived in Tibooburra (meaning heap of rocks) ready for an icy drink. Tibooburra is a great little village and we contemplated staying for the New Years Eve party but our mood was plummeting the further south we travelled so we rested a day and then headed south.

At the end of the day we pulled up in a small caravan park in Curlwaa NE from Mildura and spent a day cleaning some of the dust out of our cubby. But then we were back on the road for another 2 day stopover in Ballarat for more cleaning – there’s nothing like cleaning to dampen the mood. I mean we had been carting a goodly amount of Australia’s beautiful red dust with us for 1000s of Km but it was time to lighten the load.

We arrived home to a surprisingly healthy garden after what had been one hell of a trip, a veritable odyssey through deserts and ancient ocean beds, passed trees of almost fossil status, pockets of Gondwana land, through land rich in mineral and fossil deposits, visiting idyllic off shore islands and giant timber country – over 140,000 km. We live on an amazing and ancient continent few rarely get to explore properly. Then we sat back and pondered a while over all we’d seen ……. before winding back up to planning our next series of adventures.

The location of famous ‘Dig Tree’ was only 70 odd km from Innamincka so of course we drove out to see it. There are a number of trees with blazes carved into them, many have grown over but I think the one above might be the one. I felt a sense of futility as we visited the supposed location of the ‘Tree’ – the expedition was ill equipped and without strong experienced leadership. Burke had absolutely no experience in the outback or indeed of expeditions of this magnitude so it beggars belief that he should have been chosen to lead this challenging expedition. However ….. here on the Cooper in 1860 Burke, Wills, Gray and King established Camp 65 on their way north to the Gulf of Carpentaria. On their return, they missed the Brahe party by a mere 9 hours but they found the tree that Brahe had emblazoned with ‘Dig’. And they dug - but the supplies were insufficient to sustain them and because Burke had alienated the aboriginals, the bountiful bush tucker in the area was simple not something they could access. So they perished. King was the sole survivor and was cared for by the aboriginals. How many ‘explorers’ have been rescued by the local aboriginals I wonder. Perhaps we need to acknowledge that!

And there we were living another ‘list’ thing - heading along the Strzelecki Track bound for Innamincka on the Cooper Creek. There are so many amazing stories about the mighty Cooper, the romantic ‘Clancy’ Banjo Paterson poem, the Burke and Wills expedition perhaps the most poignant - so I was pretty excited. The Strzelecki Track is a 470 odd km unsealed road that links the town of Lyndhurst to Innamincka in the northeast of South Australia. Today the track is used mainly by large trucks that carry supplies for the small population of inland stations or transport cattle down to the south but it also services the large oil and gas plants that spill out across the region. Contrary to what you might think at first glance, it is a rich land. The Track is sometimes impassable due to flooding and we came in on the tail end of one such event.

Over 100 years ago, it was Captain Starlight (of ‘Robbery under Arms’ fame) who gave the Track notoriety. In 1870 Henry Arthur Readford, better known as Harry Redford, or ‘Starlight’, drove a 1000 head of stolen cattle from Queensland, down the Barcoo River and Cooper Creek past Mount Hopeless, to Blanchewater where he sold them for $10,000. When he was finally apprehended in 1872, the now folk-hero and his two accomplices were found not guilty by a jury that was so astounded by his accomplishment that they couldn’t convict him for the crime. Be bold and fearless!

The road was a bit cut up in places but once we got passed those sections and the road water, it was not an arduous drive through to Innamincka. The town which lies within the Innamincka Regional Reserve, is perched on a high plain, almost alpine-like, surrounded by the Strzelecki Desert to the south and the Sturt Stony Desert to the north. A rather inhospitable place one might think but Cooper Creek was part of a major Aboriginal trade route, and the name Innamincka is believed to have derived from Aboriginal legend. Some say it means ‘dark hole’, others say it means ‘meeting place’. Incongruous perhaps but it is certainly a place of extremes. The Yandruwandha and Yawarrawarrka people lived in this region for 10s of thousands of years, taking advantage of the prolific birdlife and seasonal wildlife and bush tucker. Both groups retain a strong interest and presence in the area. It was part of an important trading route for Aboriginal people that crossed Australia north to south. In the north people travelled to the ‘Simpson desert’ to collect and make pituri (a narcotic) from a desert shrub and ash; it was highly valued and traded the length of Central Australia. From the south from just a few places in the ‘Flinders Ranges’ came rich red ochre (we talked to Aboriginal people in that region back in 2009 who told us about this precious trade commodity). From Innamincka came flat slabs of sandstone that were used for grinding seeds. These stones were highly valued and were traded across the country; we found some in the western Simpson desert on our trek in April. Below is the image of a woven string bag made over 100 years ago from vegetable fibre to carry pituri from the desert areas.

The astonishing and extensive Coongie Lakes and associated wetlands just north of Innamincka are a spiritual site for Aboriginal people and were crucial to those populations because of the availability of resources, particularly following flood events. There are many mammal, reptile, frog, bird and fish species living in the Cooper system including the lakes. In this region alone 16 species of fish have been found 13 of which are native species. One of the non-native species is goldfish which were released into the lakes by recreational fishmen to serve as bait - no comment! the other are the Murray cod which are believed to have come from a farm dam during a flood.

It’s a land of challenge and delight. Captain Charles Sturt discovered the Cooper Creek in 1843 in his attempt to reach the centre of Australia. What followed was pastoral occupation as was the fashion of the European settlement of Australia. And some few decades later the area was named the ‘Land of Promise’. Tragically in little more than a decade after pastoral runs had been established the traditional Aboriginal way of life had been destroyed.

An inland mission hospital cum Nursing Home and Flying Doctor Base was established in 1929 and that served the far north east and parts of the Queensland channel country as well as the local indigenous population for many years, but eventually all facilities closed and the town was abandoned in 1952. It wasn’t until the discovery of gas and oil by Santos in the 1960s and a sharp increase in 4WD adventurers trying their luck on the Strzelecki Track that prompted the revival of the town. The hospital has been restored and refurbished now as a headquarters and information centre for the National Parks and Wildlife Service and museum.

Sadly for us because of recent heavy rains the road to the Lakes was impassable. It was a great disappointment but we could return! On the positive side that and others rains meant that the mighty Copper Creek was flowing. Absolutely magnificent. And there we camped alongside the ‘Creek’ in Innamincka. We were surrounded by a deafening silence punctuated by birds serenading us - it was idyllic. Along the river bank we were a little mesmerised by small turtles feeding – we both tried to capture pix of them. So many stories about this area and also about the Cooper as it meanders its way towards Lake Eyre. And as I gazed about I was humming in my head …..

“Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are.

In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy

Gone a-droving "down the Cooper" where the western drovers go;

As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,

For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him

In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,

And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,

And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.”

Our original plan had been to travel to the Alice Springs in April via the Strzelecki Track but disappointingly border/covid issues intervened. So as not to miss out on this bucket-list track we decided this trip would end as it was originally meant to start - this morning we set our wheels on the Track at Lyndhurst after an overnight stop in Leigh Creek.

The road runs through the Strzelecki Desert and the vistas were simply that- flat, dry and vast intersected every now and then with dry creek beds and in places strange eroded low dunes. I found a name for the feature but have have forgotten it although I have seen some people refer to it as cup cake dunes. We hadn’t gone much more than 200 km before a guy in a mines vehicle pulled us over to tell us that the road was flood ahead and that we wouldn’t get through with our van. We hummed and hawed but decided to keep going particularly after another vehicle driven by a man who had worked on the mines for many years reckoned all would be well. That was confirmed by a young couple who had just come through there. Evidently they were pumping the water off the road so we reckoned that with an overnight stop at Moomba by the time we got to the flooded sections the road would be OK. As it turned out we were right.

Travelling the road was ‘interesting’. Loads of mines trucks on the road and it got worse after Moomba where we stayed overnight in a parking area overlooking the huge Moomba plant – in the distance it looked like something out of a futuristic movie. Moomba is a processing plant for the natural gas and oil which is gathered from around 600 gas and 300 oil wells in a large number of fields in the Cooper Basin area. It is then distributed via pipeline to SA, NSW, ACT and Victoria.

Trevor had offered to give us a guided tour of the ‘town’ or invited us to just poke around wherever we wanted that morning. We were keen to hit the road for the more than 300km drive to Leigh Creek so we loaded up and headed out - but we’ll be back. Before we left however I called in to the pub to say hooroo to Rosie who tried to entice me into the kitchen to try out what she was doing with left overs from our Christmas lunch! She’s an absolute gem. Thanks again Rosie for a delicious Christmas meal and Trevor for marvellous company.

This desert land is spectacular, an ever-changing vista which looks different every time we drive it. Magnificent! Here’s hoping to goodness they don’t seal the Track. Driving gravel/sand/dirt roads makes the entire country come alive - you feel like you are part of the environment not just passing through. It gives you a very authentic experience perhaps because it feels remote and eons away from the coastal fringe. So subtle, some might say almost hostile, uninviting yet as we drove we were surrounded by the largest cattle station in the world - the lucrative Anna Creek Station, Kidman territory. It would take a week to ride across it on horseback. Beautiful country. How little we know of our land now and even less of it before colonisation. But onward and eastward - we were charging along to join the Strzelecki Track.

Couldn’t get more Australian than this year’s Christmas Day. Complete with heat, flies, galahs, corellas, red sand, a dirt track, eucalypts throwing a wee bit of shade - and an outback pub Christmas lunch as guests of the publican, Trevor Wright. We were at William Creek on the Oodnadatta Track about 900km south-east of Alice Springs and 1600 north-west of Melbourne.

There were 4 of us for lunch including Rosie, bartender extraordinaire and Jill-of-all-trades, who laid out a veritable banquet for us, enough to feed an army. Thank you Rosie! We ate in the solid dining room built 30 odd years ago out of the sleepers from the narrow gauge Old Ghan Line.

There was so much history to soak up for instance a brother and sister (I think) once owned this pub and a much older one at Coward Springs 70 odd kms down the Track. When the latter pub closed a section of the bar was brought to William Creek and inserted into the existing bar. Looks a bit odd but it's a terrific talking point; that’s it the dark wooden bit sandwiched between the corrugated iron.

William Creek is a fascinating place. The whole place is owned by one man, Trevor Wright who is progressively painting the town white - remember that 200 odd Km up the Track is the hamlet of Oodnadatta where absolutely everything is painted pink. Trevor’s airline services a huge swathe of this region as well as offering tourist flights particular over Laye Eyre-Kati Thanda. One day! On a past trip through here we drove out to Halligans Bay on the south west corner of Kari Thanda, just 60 or so km from the pub. It’s not the sort of place you want to have a vehicle breakdown - it felt very hostile in fact a couple of people had been stranded out there and died. Nup it’s the airplane or helicopter for me.

Next morning we set off down the Oodnadatta Track aiming to reach William Creek that night 400 odd kms south-east. The Oodnadatta Track, a favourite of ours, follows a traditional Aboriginal trading route which followed a string of springs bubbling water from the Great Artesian Basin deep below.

The GAB is the largest, deepest artesian basin in the world and covers over 20% of Australia. The Track crosses the traditional lands of three Aboriginal groups - to the south the Kyani people, to the west the Arabana people and to the north the Arrente people. The desert which today we know as the Simpson Desert, has three different names depending on location and is guarded and cared for by these traditional groups. Knowledge of the location of this precious ribbon of live-giving springs has been passed down by the traditional people of the land for 10s of 1000s of years and shared with explorers and settlers with the warning that “it isn’t the straightest route but it’s the only one if you are to survive.”

Dotted along the track are waterholes, bores and old wells; this one is the Mundarinna waterhole and well. It’s fallen into disrepair but there’s evidence that it was well used in times past.

The Australian Overland Telegraph Line, completed in 1870s, followed this route connecting Darwin NT with Port Augusta, SA 3,200 km away. This is the Angle Pole at the point near Oodnadatta where the direction of the Telegraph Line changed to a more northerly direction.

And a little later because of the availability of water this route was chosen for the stream train, Ghan. Ruins are scattered all along the route of the old Ghan evidence of sidings and watering stops, many associated with natural springs.

We had a false start to our southbound trip to SA with our first stop Marla at the northern end of the Oodnadatta Track. I could smell something strange like fuel, sulpherous but not deisel. Notice is not always taken of my sensitive nose so off we set. By the time we got to Stuart's Well it was obvious to Lindsay too. Unfortunately there was no mechanic or anyone closely approximating a mechanic there so Lindsay got on the phone to Toyota in Melbourne and they suggested it might be the battery (I had checked my good friend Dr Google and got the same answer). With 300km to go before reaching a place that just might have a ‘mechanic’, we decided to drive the 80km back to Alice with me frantically making calls (when there was a signal) trying to track down a new battery plus intallation. Hooray and 3 cheers for MyCar! We got there an hour before they were due to close for the holidays and they had something suitable and dropped in it. With a huge sigh of relief we head back down the hwy. With almost 4000Km still to go, 1800 odd on remote roads we were feeling very fortunate to have avoided a battery melt down.

To celebrate we stopped at Kulgera Roadhouse close to the SA border for a slap up pub meal with the locals who were in for the evening and having a wonderful with the juke box blasting. It was quite an experience and an eye opener watching the young bar tender rationing out drinks and cigaretts to the locals.

We spent a few days in Alice Springs resting a little in the cool of an airconditioned cabin - what luxury! The wiring for the caravan aircon had come 'loose' and needed fixing - not surprising after the 1600km section of the Outback Way we’d just driven. Fortunately we found a friendly family repair place and they got it going again - ready for more bone-jarring travel. Our caravan has done a mighty job hanging together over 10s of 1000s of Km of very rough unsealed roads - some of the sealed roads have not been much better! Thank you caravan.

What was this section of our outback trip really like apart from hot!? I’m still digesting all that we saw - small herds of haughty camels, spectacular scenery, glorious colours, fascinating rocks, birds, chilli red sand dunes, infinitely wide flat horizons with enormous blue sky-domes and magnificent blue purple and pink wrap-around mountain ranges. This wonderful daily smorgasbord was topped off with unusual flowers and wacky desert oaks.

We parked under a huge kurrajong tree to explore a little, I had seen an insignificant low bush giving off a yellow glow. When I looked closer I found the sweetest little yellow fluff balls with adorable wee white flowers extending from them. Dicrastylix exsuccosa so cinerea. These are quite delightful like miniature chicks and only grow in this small region. Very special. The other wee yellow flower belonged to an interesting low shrub growing roadside. As with so many things the beauty is in the detail.

Top left - Pretty purple spike of flowers outside Lasseters Cave. The rest, the furry looking things are ‘lambs tails’ (newcastelia hexarrhena) zoom in to see the sweet little flowers that bloom from those wooly fingers. You need to look closely out in these arid areas because the desert protects its beauties carefully from the desiccating winds and heat.

Our third day on the road was glorious. We were driving in the Gibson Desert bioregion passed some breathtaking ranges with ephemeral rivers and creeks lined with ghost and river gums. Glorious!

Gold prospector, Lasseter spent 25 days in the small cave (above) after his camels bolted with all his food about 15km east of here in January 1931. And no we didn’t find the lost reef but then we didn’t go looking. There’s definitely gold in them thar hills! I find it impossible to capture the magnificence of the ranges that almost surround you near the WA/NT border. Ernest Giles was obviously captured by their beauty because he named one semi circle of hills Schwerin Mural Crescent for the Princess of a Schwerin (in northern German).

On one huge ghost gum, the Len Beadell tree, there’s a plaque commemorating the construction of central desert roads listing the crew members who worked together with Len Beadell on those roads. Earlier in the day we had visited the stump of a ghost gum onto which Len Beadell had attached a plaque giving road coordinates and directions.

We passed a number of intersections with other roads he had slashed through the bush - Sandy Blight, Connie Sue. And the Heather Hwy in the Gibson desert. I’d waited 10 years to reach this point so it was quite special. I just wandered around (in 40+++C heat) looking at the the few pretty flowers that grew by the roadside. The one that leapt out at me was the butterfly bush. Lovely. He was an amazing man, rather a hero figure for me really.

Mention central Australia, Alice Springs and what leaps to most people’s minds is Uluru - sunrise sunset diners etc etc. To me Kata Tjuta (meaning many heads) is more beautiful than Uluru - which of course is a totally awesome sight, wonderful to walk around, but in fact Kata Tjuta is a little taller than Uluru and stunningly complex. Thousands upon 1000s of people flock to Uluru but few travel the few extra Km to clamber amongst the quiet and mystical giant’s rock pile which is Kata Tyuta, 36 monstrous rocks tumbled together. The site has been awarded dual World Heritage status for its indigenous heritage and for its natural beauty. We didn’t wander through the rocks this time but we did the last time we were there. Magnificent!

Travel further east and there stark on the horizon is Mt Connor, Attila. This monolith is sometimes referred to as Fool-uru because many people mistaken it for Uluru 150km away. This flat topped behemoth is over 3500 million years old and is about the same size as Uluru but covers a larger area. It is on private land but they offer tours; we have promised ourselves to visit it next time we’re through here.

This is a map of Australia's major hwys - there’s a large empty space in the centre. So you can see how valuable a road cutting diagonally through the centre would be. We made it to Alice Springs NT four days after we left Laverton, WA! Completing that 1600 km trip meant that we have driven the entire Outback Way, a 2800 km ‘road’ which cuts diagonally across Australia from Laverton to Winton in Qld (we’d driven the rest of the route earlier in this trip). This route, Australia’s longest shortcut, cuts across that large region of Australia’s road-less interior reducing the west-east connection drive time by about 1600km. The ‘shortcut’ includes the Great Central Road, the Gunbarrel, Lasseter, Stuart, Plenty and Donohue highways plus the Kennedy Development Road. It is being progressively bituminised in a massive project spanning many years. That road upgrade was what motivated us to explore these remote areas before ‘the road’ gets too busy. It’s a long route mostly through very remote places. After hearing doom and gloom stories from a few people, we were a wee bit nervous of what we might face but it was absolutely fine - at least no worse than other roads we’ve travelled on this trip with the bonus of endless quite diverse and beautiful vistas. It’s all about how you travel, who’s driving, a big helping of luck and what eyes you cast out across the land. It was Australia at its best - remoteness, ancient landscapes, desert vegetation, ephemeral waterways, modern histories of explorers and prospectors, ancient histories of life lived well.

End and beginning of 110 kph - no speed limit in between, except what the road itself imposes!! At times we were driving over and between red dunes so the roads were powdered and sometimes whipped with red sand, along roads hard packed with overlaid crushed limestone and just plain old rough roads - there wasn’t much bitumen.

We drove through silent and deserted spaces. Only about 20 vehicle passed us going on the opposite direction - but close to 400 wrecked vehicles laying discarded on the verge or tumbled together by graders or the like, some displaying bright graffiti.

Each night we collapse exhausted. The nights were cooler in the high 20s and we had a DC fan and a small evaporative cooler. But we woke not much rested to temps in the low 30s. This is NOT the time of year to be travelling in the interior but we’ll be back in the cooler months to explore more.

From Esperance we headed north to Laverton and the start of our trek east to complete our journey along the Outback Way inc Great Central Hwy and Lasseters Hwy this time. A couple of nights in Kalgoorlie and then we were right to go. So excited.

Another wonderful wilderness, one which felt more remote than Cape Le Grand, hints of Gondwana with ancient plant species and silence. Perfect. The coast and beaches were awesome and the colour of the water hard to believe at times. The place is aptly named, it is indeed ‘arid’ by many measures yet aboriginals survived here for 10s of thousands of years. The new settlers tried to bully the land into producing what they wanted but eventually gave up. Slow learners! In spite of the dryness the plants were plentiful and fascinating. Here is a small selection - and the wee wallabies liked them too! We saw a few dear little things eating yellow flowers along side the road.

I kept seeing what I thought were cycads. Turns out they are in fact related to the cycads and this species is endemic to southern WA.

We visited Dolphin Cove but didn’t see dolphins but we had watched a pod playing up and down the beach the day before. Some of the tracks to coves were pretty rugged so we turned back a number of times.

We eventually got to the end of the road at Poison Creek. Along that road we met and talked to the Ranger. His is an enormous relentless job but how wonderful to work in such an environment. There’s a fantastic research project there for someone to study and document the plants of the NP, he simply hasn’t time to do that.

A real wilderness with ancient plant species and silence. Perfect. The beaches sparkle in the sun and the water is jewel-like.

The coastline is dominated by massive rocks spilling down into the sea. On the cliff at one place was a huge rock seemingly suspended, the Whistling Rock. It produces sounds like a sea shell held to your ear, quite intriguing. The local aboriginal people believe it is their ancestors crying for two children who were carried out to sea.

We drove along the dazzling white sand of one great sweeping beach and on our way back to our van drove out on Pink Lake which is not pink at the moment but once they ‘gathered’ salt here. That practice and changes in water flow changed the salinity and voila no pink!

Through dense groves of Heath-leaved honeysuckle, pink boronia, majestic royal hakea and banksia we drove through Fitzgerald River National Park. The Royal Hakea were glorious and looked like wee stained glass windows with the sun shining through them. Guarding this stretch of coast are the Barrens squatting on the edge of the wild Southern Ocean. Some species of plants and animals are found only on the peaks a d in sheltered gullies of the Barren Ranges. Quite a piece of paradise hemmed with snow-white sands and bright blue sea. (I’ve cut out the sound on the video because all you could hear was wind. It was blowing a fake as you might see from the shaking of the camera.)