OZtrail 2017 Product Catalogue

191 260

As Robert O’Hara Burke lay dying in the heart
of Australia in 1861 it wasn’t in the midst of a
waterless waste, as so many imagine, it was
alongside a long reach of permanent water, richly
populated by fish and bird and animal life. Today you
can camp just metres away from his place of death,
sit comfortably by the water at sunset and watch
the life around you and wonder at the change in our
environment and our relationship with the land in the
past 150 years.
Cullyamurra Waterhole, where Burke andWills met their ends,
remains today as an iconic destination for many Outback
travellers. Where once the early explorers struggled over gibbers
and sandhills we now cruise in our air conditioned four-wheel
drives and live in the comforts of our modern tents and campers.
Cullyamurra is located just outside the remote mining town of
Innamincka, 1065km north of Adelaide, on the margin between
the Strzelecki Desert and Sturt’s Stony Desert. The roads in are
generally little more than tracks, surfaced with tyre shredding
gibbers or deep pools of bulldust, and always, always alive with
the ever-present bone jarring corrugations.
The one alternative is the Strzelecki Track, now a virtual four
lane dirt road sustained for the trucks of the gas and oil mining
companies whose wells dot the desert around. While even the
most suburban of vehicles, with care, can tackle a journey along
the Strzelecki it is a deceptively peaceful trail. Take just a few
steps beyond the summit of adjacent sand hills and you are in a
land which can take your life with casual ease.
Even with the benefit of modern vehicular technology
attempting a visit to Innamincka and Cullyamurra Waterhole
requires a level of determination and planning and is not to be
taken lightly. Yet the Town Common, along the Cooper Creek,
near Innamincka, is always alive with travellers keen to absorb
some of the atmosphere of this iconic corner of this nation.
The countryside is often repeated rows of orange sandhills, with
scrubby shrubs and grasses, and occasional patches of stunted
trees. The alternative seems to be seemingly endless plains of
gibbers, which glisten in the sun like the shattered remains of an
ancient cathedral’s stained glass windows.
Innamincka itself is not much of a town: a pub, a general store
and a small huddle of houses for the handful of residents. So
harsh and remote is the environment that the town was actually
abandoned in 1951 and only revived in the 1960s when the oil
and gas industry revived the area.
This is a land of stark contrasts and these begin with the sight
of a row of canoes for hire at the front of the store while all
around you is red dust and gibbers. Those canoes are to provide
a unique experience for tourists, along the Cooper Creek and
Cullyamurra Waterhole.
This is an area that ripples with the history of early exploration.
Mostly fresh from a settled and civilised Europe, these men
could have had little idea of what they were letting themselves
in for. Walk a hundred metres over those gibbers and your
cynical dismissal of their abilities will be converted to one of
respect for their endurance and strength.
Strangely for a desert this is an area that has a great deal of
permanent water – Cullyamurra Waterhole, the numerous
Coongie Lakes, Cooper Creek – and so was a nodal point for the
paths of those explorers: Sturt (1844), Leicchardt (1845), Gregory
(1858), Warburton (1866), Burke and Wills (1861), McKinlay (1861)
and Lewis (1874).
Many of these are now lost or forgotten to the memory of most
of us living in an age of the internal combustion engines and
digital technology, to our shame. Today we daily photograph the
whole landmass to work out if it will rain tomorrow; once men
died of thirst or hunger in an attempt to see what was beyond
the next range of hills.
The one pairing of names that are never forgotten from the list
of geographic daredevils is that of Burke and Wills. Hidebound
by a mistaken belief in their civilisation’s all conquering abilities,
mistrustful of the natives and dogged by the worst of luck they
pushed on to become the first to forge a path from south to
north yet stumbled back to their base camp at Bullah Bullah
Waterhole, just to the east of Cullyamurra Waterhole only hours
after the rest of their team had moved on.
Their staggering, stumbling last weeks, along the Cooper Creek
to Cullyamurra Waterhole seems incongruous today when you
sit and observe the lushness of life at this desert oasis. How
could any man die here from a want of nourishment, even as the
aboriginal inhabitants attempted to offer them their own food.
Burke and Wills are now a by-word for failure. A memorial to
Burke’s demise now rests near the western end of Cullyamurra
Waterhole – his remains were recovered and interred at a state
funeral in Melbourne - while WilliamWills expired a little further
along Cooper Creek.
This place of death had for millennia been a place of life and
prosperity for the aboriginal population of the area. Their carved
stone images cover every rock surface along the eastern end of
the Waterhole.
CullyamurraWaterhole is one brief stop for thewaters flowing south-
west out of north-eastern Queensland along the Cooper Creek,
starting as far away as Charters Towers, nearly 2000km off. The
huge catchment area ensures that there is always somewater in the
system, and it has never been known to be dry at Cullyamurra.
After passing the narrow neck of rocky ground at its eastern end
it spreads to a broad and deep reach, lined with great gums and
lush green grass. Here the water pauses briefly before heading
towards its destiny with Lake Eyre, where in times of flood it
spreads into a vast inland sea and sparks a periodic revival in the
life of this parched land.
Cullyamurra is up to 150 metres wide and 11 km in length, and
reaches a maximum depth of 27 metres near its eastern (inlet)
end. Known as The Choke, this is where the course of the river is
constricted by rocks and has carved a very deep channel. In the
1974 flood the water flow here was estimated at an astonishing
4.8 million litres per second!
As with all such oases, Cullyamurra sustains a large population
of birds, from flocks of small budgerigars to Brolgas and large
predatory raptors to migratory waders, ducks, spoonbills,
cormorants and pelicans.
The larger predators are drawn largely by the water life - fish
and turtles – and up to 130 species of invertebrates, as well as a
healthy population of marsupials and reptiles.
A walk along the banks is a constant revelation of new vistas
over the water, while dominating the background is the ever
present desert. Just metres from huge red gums and coolabahs
is the soft substrate of sand. Walk a few metres more and you
are literally standing in desert.
A trip to CullyamurraWaterhole is no great trip of endurance. Just
15km away are the counter lunches and air conditioning of the
Innamincka pub. There is an extensive camping area long the bank
of the waterhole, with scattered composting toilets and barbecues
and enough views over the waters to satisfy the army of campers.
To sit in a camp chair and watch the sun rise or set over this
iconic location is a uniquely Australian experience, made all the
more enjoyable with a cold beer or good red in your hands. This
is the spot where pioneering and modern Australia converge
and sit comfortably side by side. Make the most of it and go,
you’ll never regret it.
''Cu llyamu r ra Water hole, w here Bu r ke
and Wills met thei r ends , remains
today as an iconic destination for many
Outback traveller s. "
''To sit in a camp chai r and watch the
su n r ise or set over this iconic location
is a u niquely Australian exper ience..."
Just the Facts
DIRECTIONS
Follow the Strzelecki Track north east from Lyndhurst. At
Innamincka follow the Innamincka-Nappamerrie Road
and take the signposted turn off 7km out. Follow this
track for 7km to the camp sites.
PROHIBITED
Dogs
NEAREST SUPPLIES
Innamincka
RATES
$19 per vehicle per night (purchased at the Innamincka
Trading Post store) or free with a Desert Parks Pass.
WEB
Browse_by_region/Flinders_Ranges_and_Outback/
Innamincka_Regional_Reserve/Fees
191 OZTRAIL CULLYAMURRAWATERHOLE