Heather's travel notes: February 4-8 2019 - Tibooburra and the Strzelecki desert

Some people like exploring old churches, castles and the like. Me? Well ..... you may have guessed by now! So here we are in the Strzelecki Desert.

The arid desert region we are exploring at the moment intrigues me. You could drive through it for days and continue to discover amazing things. The primary land use is grazing as well as oil and gas production-extraction. But deep below this arid desert is the ancient water of the Great Artesian Basin. The water in the GAB ranges in age from several thousand years in the north to nearly 2 million years in the south! but not to be diverted, that’s a whole other intriguing story.

The land we can see sits on top of ancient sediment over 4km thick laid down over 500 million years with some of the deepest sediment containing oil and gas. We hear about an inland sea invading the region from the north 100-odd million years ago only to retreat a mere 20 million years later. The blink of an eye!

Hard as it might be to imagine, 50 million years ago the Lake Eyre Basin had a warm and wet monsoonal climate. But the lakes dried up and dune fields developed. A continuing pattern of wet and dry saw the climate swing to a wetter epoch 30-40,000 years ago when the lakes filled to overflowing. Since then the climate has become drier and the region today is in a dunes period (geologically speaking). Some of the dune systems today run 250km. For instance the Simpson Desert has 1000-odd parallel dunes, the largest number in the world. Quite amazing!

Driving through the Sturt National Park we drove over deep red dunes through stony tablelands (jump-ups) and gibber plains. I love the gibber. The sun-baked stones that almost form a pavement have a patina of colour ranging from pale to deep purple-brown as iron and other minerals have ‘leached’ to the surface to then be glazed shiny and hard by the sun. Desert ceramics! Where they occur these ‘pavements’ protect the land from soil erosion. Across these ‘plains’ one can see drainage lines well defined by trees and scrub. But the Sturt NP and surrounds are parched. While I know this is part of a long cycling climatic pattern in our interior, it broke my heart to see dry waterholes and animals digging in dried soaks to get any ‘water’ or damp sand lying below the surface. We passed hundreds of mainly kangaroo carcasses scattered around every waterhole and soak for 100-odd metres caught in grotesque postures as tendons and skin had shrunk and split in the sun. Yet amongst this desiccation and sadness, my eyes are drawn to shimmering silver as the wind plays with the silver-green mulga. It is gentle relief to the eyes and mind.

As we drive through the landscape, the seemingly endless horizon is broken here and there by ‘jump-ups’ (escarpments). Jump-ups are all that is left after millions of years of slow relentless erosion, their crowns preserved by rock that is harder than the surrounding rock. Like a crazed windscreen, trees chart the course of drainage lines and ephemeral creeks adding texture to this subtle sunburnt landscape. We love it!

Every soak and water hole was populated with kangaroos and ducks. The Roos sought out the shade.

A panorama of the desert requires keen eyes to pick out features in what seems empty land

We continued on until we came to the Dog Fence which was built to protect the productive southeast from dingoes. Phyllis, the person who maintains this stretch of the fence, is a stalwart and came to our rescue (with the local police) when we had a major tyre blow-out. She is a champ. Thanks Phyllis. There are many gates along the Dog Fence - Toona, Fortville, Warri, Wompah. You, or in our case me, have to hop out and open the gates and then close them securely again. Woe betide anyone who leaves a gate open!

We spent a few days based in Tibooburra taking day trips out into the National Parks and desert surrounds - wonderful country for desert-lovers. One day we drove to Cameron Corner which is at the intersection of SA, Qld and NSW. A few time zones meet at this point which means New Year’s Eve is a long celebration as people converge for this quirky anomalous phenomenon. Quirkiness aside the drive to Cameron Corner is quite an experience - particularly if there has been rain. We had seen huge patches jumping with tiny frogs brought out by a little moisture, ephemeral lakes, tracks that are ‘redefined’ anytime there’s substantial rain, great expanses of dry lakebeds, lush vegetation, birds and other fauna. We have been there three times and each time it is different.