The Strzelecki Track, pioneered as an amazing feat in the mid 1800s by cattle duffer Robert Readford, is not spicked with arduous gems to savour nowadays, but the contrast between dirt track and velvet bitumen is a surreal treat with nature adding a few spicy surprises.
I have always had a liking for Characters or as the French put it, someone who is illuminated. If the brain whirrs, why not put a cherry on top and have fun? Talc Alf squats 2 kms outside Lyndhurst on the southern start of the Strzelecki Track, an Aussie icon in his donga kingdom of creative deep thought surrounded by talc carvings and signs bidding welcome to his world.
At 78 years old, he is in fine fettle as he dispenses flowing insights at a rate to talk off my legs, let alone a donkey’s hind ones. Stroking his long beard he rattles through a myriad of examples of the origin of script, its relation to how Australia got its name, same for Middle Eastern names and words; then a canter into the Indonesian struggle for independence; an anecdote about Malcom Kerr; a job as the mailman on the Strzelecki Track; and so much more, I was breathless and thirsty in the 40° shade. Have a listen, make a gold coin donation, be enriched. Good on you Alf, keep carving, keep the brain cells whirring.
A long stretch of sealed road leads into long stretches of medium corrugations across arid plains. Intermittent patches along dry floodways keep us on our toes with gotcha bulldust holes and washouts. One or two road trains barrel by, for the rest of the trip we had the road to ourselves at a steady 60-80 kph, aired down to smooth the corrugations.
Later, the dunes in the landscape perked interest, so we stopped at those of Montecollina Bore, however it no longer attracts wildlife because the bore has been capped years ago.
Onwards to Strzelecki Creek crossing and campsite which was dry, wielding fierce 43° temps, friendly flies, and wind like a blow dryer, but what a magnificent sunset, harbinger of next day’s meteorological surprises.
Before dawn we started to hightail it for 3 hours to Innamincka before forecast superheavy rains mid-morning could turn track into bog.
A long, sealed stretch gave way at the space age looking, industrial FIFO hub of Moomba to dirt, dust, mild corrugations, and handful of mining traffic for the hundreds of derricks.
All sealed for last stretch. That was it. All over, or was it? Nature had kept the big surprise to the end.
We rolled into Innamincka as the inky storm clouds gathered. Loved the Cooper Creek crossing, and popped into The Town Common camping area beside the creek.
An 8km detour to visit Burke’s Gravesite was quite moving. A short walk through the red gums and coolibahs along the Cooper, leads in the oppressive heat and flies, to the tree where he finished.
He clearly was after fame and glory, not interested in the locals who would have saved him, flawed as we all are in some form, but what a sad way to go.
Innamincka bids us welcome with a whirlwind kiss from nature. After checking and rechecking weather forecasts, we felt the first drops of rain and swirling winds descending from the massed dark clouds towards the end of the sticky afternoon. There is mayhem afoot: we set up on high ground, conveniently close to the pub for a bottle of wine to savour the storm.
Then the demonic rain thundered down relentlessly, hour by hour, accompanied by howling winds clawing their way into the bus through a window jammed slightly open, waking us again and again through the night. Through our bleary eyes, first light revealed swirling puddles all around us, the Cooper Creek running a banker, up 6 metres in a couple of hours. On and on it went, drumming rain and howling wind.
Then around 11am, the attack ceased, the inky clouds retreated to new regions in Queensland and New South Wales. A sliver of weak sun appeared.
A local helicopter pilot looped above us, a parks ranger surveyed the damage and set up the roads closed sign, trucks and truckies huddled on the hard standing.
Wishing to celebrate the occasion, we slogged across mountains of mud to the pub. A sign on the door said: “We are closed due to flood. Opening in 2 days.” As Slim Dusty wailed, so did we, ‘nothing so drear as a pub with no beer’!
Next day, we trek through the mud to visit Innamincka’s sights: the cemetery and the pile of old bottles behind the pub. Bottles of principally rum, whisky, wine and beer were transported overland by Afghan cameleers. 200m in length and over 2 metres high, the bottle pile of empties was heritage listed in the 1920s, and later its glinting in the sun provided a landing beacon for the mail plane. A stupendous flood in 1956 carried most of the pile away towards Lake Eyre!
Things are picking up when the pub resurfaces from the water and we manage to get hold of two bottles of Shiraz.
We remained marooned, with all roads out closed for a week. After the floods, came a massive dust storm.
When is the plague of locusts, we joked?
Access: The Strzelecki Track runs for 475km between Innamincka, with its many excellent 4wd outback attractions in the regional reserve, and Lyndhurst, South Australia, with a shorter route of 458km an alternative to go between Moomba and Innamincka.
The Bulloo Developmental Road in Queensland (369 km) is part of the Adventure Way and runs from Cunnamulla (via Thargomindah) to the Strzelecki Track just south of Innamincka. Entire road sealed on the Queensland side up to the SA border. The last 19kms from the border is on unsealed road.
The Strzelecki Track is part of the Outback Loop, a whole series of crackerjack desert outback adventures. Depending on the season, expect corrugations, stones, bull dust and flooding after heavy rains. Watch out for recent rains or if the Cooper Creek is in flood.
Road Conditions. https://www.dit.sa.gov.au/OutbackRoads
Innamincka. https://www.parks.sa.gov.au/parks/innamincka-regional-reserve
Text: ©Robert Strauss
Photos: ©Genevieve Vallee
