Simpson Desert

This is one of the great motoring adventures in the world - crossing the 500 kilometres of the Simpson Desert between Birdsville and Mount Dare.

It's remote, challenging and equally impossible during summer and when it's wet. It calls for fastidious planning and preparation, but the reward is a travel journey you'll never forget.

There are two main routes across the Simpson Desert, and neither is for the faint-hearted. (The Simpson Desert Park is closed each year from 1 December to 15 March as the extreme summer temperatures make it unsafe).

In the 1960s, the Rig Road was carved out of the dunes to make way for stock-filled semi-trailers, cutting across the desert from Mount Dare to the Birdsville Track. The French Line, established in 1963 by the French Petroleum Company and passing through Poeppel Corner on the South Australian border with Queensland and the Northern Territory, was designed as a temporary track for geological surveys and is today kept open only by 4WD enthusiasts.

Essential travel items include a good 4WD, radio (preferably HF) or satellite phone, plenty of fuel and water, recovery equipment and comprehensive maps. If you plan on camping, please use gas stoves because firewood is scarce. You'll also need a Desert Parks Pass.

The desert was named in the 1930s by geologist Cecil Thomas Madigan after his financier Allen Simpson, but was left largely untouched for another 30 years.