Birdsville Track

The 517km Birdsville Track is the stuff of legend: it runs from Maree to Birdsville and is one of our great outback adventures.

Marree
Multiculturism came early to Marree.  Aborigines, Afghan cameleers and Europeans lived in relative harmony as the fortunes of the town ebbed and flowed with emerging Outback pastoralism, the Overland Telegraph (link), the Old Ghan Railway (link) and the cattle industry. Originally named Hergott Springs after a German botanist travelling with explorer John McDouall Stuart, the town became Marree during World War I, when anti-German sentiment was rife.

Worth a visit is Marree's replica mosque (all that remans of "Ghantown", which was once home to more than 60 cameleers, their families and 1,500 camels) and Museum Park, featuring the old mail truck used by renowned Outback mailman Tom Kruse on his run from Marree to Birdsville.

The Maree Hotel is over 100 years old and perfect for a nice cold beer and a chat with the locals.

Marree to Mungerannie
On the way look out for the former camel depot and date palm plantation at Lake Harry homestead (2,000 date palms were planted here and many can now be seen in Renmark and Mildura on the Murray); the lookout over Lake Harry; and the Dog Fence (link) - at 5,300kms it's the longest man-made structure in the world and is used to keep dingoes away from sheep in the south.

Perfect for the billy boil is the 5km explanse of floodplan at the Cooper Creek crossing; and then it's on to the yellow sand ridges of the Natterannie Sandhills; and the ruins of Mulka homestead and store.

A perfect watering hole, Mungerannie consists of a character-filled Outback pub and an artesian bore that attracts 140 bird species.  Lying at the junction of four deserts - Sturt's Stony, Tirari, Simpson and Strzelecki - the pub provides fuel, refreshments and accommodation, including campsites beside the permanent waterhole, elaborately named the Derwent River.

Mungerannie to Birdsville
Just north of Mungerannie are the photogenic hills of Mungerannie Gap.  Before Clifton Hills further north is the Rig Road turnoff which heads west through the Simpson Desert to Mount Dare (4WD and extreme care needed) and then you're on the "outside" track, graded in the 1960's to detour around the massive Goyder Lagoon - a sprawling floodplain that links the Diamantina River with Warburton Creek.  Next are Lake Surprise Dune and Koonchera Dune.  About here the seemingly endless expanse of Sturt's Stony Desert makes way for the Diamantina Floodplain and soon you'll come across Dead Man's Sandhill.

Further north is Pandie Pandie homestead, then you'll cross into Queensland for the last 12 kilometres to Birdsville.

Outback driving
See our Outback Driving pages for safety information and other tips.