Defendering Australia: Day 11: William Creek to Oodnadatta, 205km

A flight over Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre, a few hours on the Oodnadatta Track, and a visit to the historic town of Oodnadatta.

Water in lake Eyre

We were lucky because water had just started flowing into Lake Eyre a week ago, coming from the feeding creeks in the north - the result of wet weather in Queensland in January - so we got to see those rivers and the water spreading across the lake. Much of the flight also covered Anna Creek Station, the largest cattle station in the world, at about 6 million acres (24,000 sq km).

Breaks in the salt

Black swans take flight

The lake itself is 9,500 square km but fills rarely – the last time being in the 1970’s. It is the lowest point in Australia, at 15m below sea level and it takes water from a large portion of Australia, extending across the NT, Queensland west of the Great Dividing Range, a bit of NSW and northern SA. When water comes in, fish and birdlife follow, but it evaporates at 1cm per day (3m per year). I have always wanted to see this and I was even fascinated by the lake when I was a kid and read about Donald Campbell setting the land speed record on the salt flats in his jet powered car, Bluebird, in the 1960s.

Water flowing into the lake

The Oodnadatta Track gave us glimpses of the past as we continued to follow the old telegraph line and the original Ghan railway.

Algebuckina bridge then

Algebuckina bridge now

Another old bridge

The railway reached Oodnadatta in 1891 and until 1927, the trip to Alice Springs was completed by camel trains, so Oodnadatta was a big railroad town. We saw some areas of track, many old rusting bridges, including the largest bridge in South Australia, and derelict telegraph stations and railway stations. We saw lots of rusted water tanks, but each of them had what looked like a large vertical tank or silo next to it. We found out that these were used to desalinate the water before using it for the trains. Most of the water here is bore water from the Great Artesian Basin (plus the occasional springs) and it varies in saltiness.