Lyndhurst

We ended up spending 2 days and 2 nights at Birdsville. One night was spent at the caravan park, then Wednesday morning we checked out and drove around the town sightseeing (didn't take long, not a big town), before finding a free camp for the night on the Diamantina River which was a couple of kms outside town. The flies were extremely friendly.

In 1883 there were 3 hotels in Birdsville. The Royal Hotel was built, along with the Birdsville Hotel and the Courthouse Hotel. The Royal Hotel operated for 40 years, after that it was leased for use as a hospital until 1937. In 1978 the property was listed for preservation and restoration. Nothing has been done except to surround the structure with a falling down fence and a faded information board. I took some photos of the sad looking ruins, hopeful that someday they may be restored. The only hotel still operating today is the Birdsville Hotel.

Today, the Birdsville Hotel is extremely popular and is an iconic outback pub. The kerbing, gutters and sealed road is an improvement on last time we were here.

Fun fact: memories of our last visit to Birdsville about 10 years ago. We won the meat raffle at the pub, and the winning ticket was pulled out by yours truly. LOL.

We also saw the Artesian Bore Head, where the water pours out at 98 degrees celsius, and is well signposted and fenced off with warnings.

Birdsville’s water comes from a bore sunk in 1961 to a depth of 1292 mts. Artesian/bore water is essential to life in the outback. The Great Artesian Basin is 2032 kms long and 1450 kms wide making it one of the largest underground water supplies on earth.

At almost every outback town where we have filled our caravan water tanks, we would have been using filtered bore water for showering, washing and cooking. There was a slight difference in taste to our tap water from home, but we haven’t had any water which tastes unpleasant.

We drove past the Birdsville Racetrack but didn’t go in this time, as they were preparing for the famous race meeting in a fortnight’s time.

We enjoyed another outback sunset watching the birds on the river and the changing colours in the sky. Never get tired of the sunsets in the outback.

On our way out of Birdsville in the morning, we were a bit concerned about the official Road Restrictions warning at the edge of town, for the Birdsville Track.

It said that the section of the track we will be travelling on between Mungerannie to Maree was ‘Closed’. Other travellers were also stopped unsure whether to continue on the track.

We turned around and went to the Visitor Information Centre and were assured that there is an error on the board and it has been reported several times, but the whole track is indeed definitely open. Apparently, a small rain shower is expected further south but will not affect the road condition.

Crossing the border into South Australia, we had to wind the watches back again half an hour. The temperature has also dropped about 10 degrees since leaving Birdsville.

The condition of the Birdsville Track was very good, with one or two small sections with water over the road and some corrugations and always the never-ending dust, but we managed to maintain an average speed of 80km per hour. However, we had forgotten just how boring this road was. There is nothing to see on the sides of the road, no tracks and few camping options.

After 4 hours driving, we did find a little track leading to the base of a small hill to shelter for the night. It was extremely windy and the flies were way too friendly for our liking, so we retreated inside, only venturing out to watch the magnificent stormy sky and sunset.

Theo woke to thunder and lightning at 1.30am, and then heavy rain about half an hour later which woke me up. We lay awake listening to the rain and the wind, hoping that it would not affect the road conditions.

In the morning, as we were driving away, the sky was black and threatening and we drove through a couple of showers, but luckily the rain had not affected the condition of the road at all, apart from suppressing the dust.

We stopped at Mungerannie Station Roadhouse, which is about halfway down the ‘Track’ to refuel, cost was $2.95 per litre, the dearest fuel so far on this trip. Chatted to the new owners for a while, who were from Bonnie Doon in Victoria, then completed the Birdsville Track at Maree where we had lunch, a huge ‘Maree Burger’ at the Maree Hotel.

We drove on for about 70kms to our camp for the night just outside Lyndhurst, at Claries Waterhole. We have stayed here a couple of times before and this is the first time there has been no water in the waterhole. Another cold and windy night.Read more