Lake Eyre Flying Holiday

Starting Off

At 6.40 am, Thursday 15 September when the minibus arrived at Club 55, we began our four day Lake Eyre flying holiday.  We picked up several fellow travellers.  We thirteen tourists were allocated to one of the two ten-seater planes piloted by Ross Anderson (ours) and Brenton Pugh.  About 8.30 am we boarded the plane and were soon flying over the Blue Mountains, Wallerawang electricity coal fired generators, farming country between Mudgee and Bathurst, then flying near Wellington and along the main highway into Dubbo.  In 1 hour 10 minutes we alighted at Dubbo to refuel and picked up the three remaining passengers, who had driven from Tamworth.

Blue Mountains

Refuelling at Dubbo

On the flight between Dubbo and Cobar, our next refuelling stop, the countryside changed from farming to dry lands.  The dryness of the countryside continued to Broken Hill.  However, the Darling provided a ribbon of water and there were a number of lakes resulting from the abundant rains in 2010 and early 2011.  We flew low over the many Menindee Lakes, which have been filled over the last three seasons following years of drought and little water in the lakes.

 Broken Hill

From lunch on Thursday to after lunch on Friday we spent looking around Broken Hill and Silverton.  Broken Hill is a thriving small city in the desert with a large artist population, art galleries, cafés and historic buildings.  Silverton is almost a ghost town and was where silver was discovered before the world’s largest silver load found in Broken Hill.  Our tour guide and bus driver Chris is among the best guides I have enjoyed anywhere in the world.  After a mediocre lunch at the Sturt Club we drove around some of the Broken Hill sights including its main street, Argent Street, with its many historic, lovely, stone buildings.  Then, we travelled to the Desert Park, where we saw Sturt Desert Peas in bloom and wandered around the Sculpture Park.

Back in Broken Hill we visited the Pro Hart Gallery and the Miners Memorial on top of the old BHP slag heap.  Chris told us the name ‘Broken Hill’ comes from a hill full of broken rocks and an ore body that existed in what is now the downtown area.  It was dug away in the mining frenzy that took place.  Charles Rasp, the boundary rider who discovered the silver, lead and zinc, together with six others made claims and formed the Broken Hill Proprietary company.  Today BHP Billiton is the world’s largest mining company, however, it left Broken Hill about sixty years ago.  After a westernised Chinese dinner at the Comfort Inn Crystal Motel, we went to bed for a much needed sleep.

David on big seat at memorial

Post Office, old town hall, police station

Thursday late afternoon and early Friday morning I wandered around the downtown area and took some photos.  After a good breakfast, we boarded the bus and Chris showed us more of Broken Hill.  One of the things he pointed out was the local golf club, which has green fairways and greens thanks to investing $6 million in running a pipe about 10 kilometres taking water extracted from the sewerage plant.  Previously this water was simply pumped into the desert.  We saw lots of workers cottages and older style housing.  Land is cheap and, therefore, housing prices are low to moderate.  The population has reduced from over 35,000 in the heyday of the 1950s to around 20,000 from the 1970s.

I like Broken Hill.  Barbara saw a pretty stone house for sale when on her morning walk.  I suggested we could see it together and maybe buy it as a holiday home.  She could not remember where she saw it and thought it was a scatterbrain idea anyway.  I felt like I would like to do something radical – radical for me, anyway – in my remaining years.  Barbara would rather me simplify our lives, not add more complexity.  I think she demonstrated the wisdom on this occasion!

Silverton

In October 2008, we visited Broken Hill and Silverton for a day when on our trip down the Darling River with Lesley and Steve Prince.  I had wondered if I would gain much from visiting again.  But, like in Broken Hill, Chris provided information and took us to more places than we saw in 2008.

Driving the engine

We visited Penrose Park on the eastern side of Silverton.  This is a recreation area established for Broken Hill residents.  They used to travel in open box carriages on the rail line between the two towns.  I found the most interesting thing was the old steam engine.  There were sheep, goats and birds in old-fashioned cages in an animal exhibit that I did not find attractive.

Next we went to Mundi Mundi Lookout, five kilometres west of town.  The lookout provides a panoramic view to the west.  The view was of green low vegetation rather than the normal red barren soils.  The rain in recent time has resulted in unusually green scenery.  The Mundi Mundi plains is where the crash scene was filmed in Mad Max 2.

Finally, we toured what remains of the town.  In the late 1880s many homes were dragged on wooden carts into Broken Hill, the new, more successful mining centre.  However, cute stone buildings remain.  I spent most of our hour of free time looking at the incredible, well-arranged exhibits in the old gaol (jail).  Lots of old photos of buildings and families; mining equipment; old washing machines, old irons, old fridges and other cooling devices – a treasure trove of history – donated by many and maintained by volunteers.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch at The Silverton Cafe.  Here, too, were collections of old bottles, dolls, teapots and odds and ends.  We returned to Broken Hill for an hour of free time before boarding the planes for the flight to Marree.  Most people wandered around, but I sat around near the old post office, watching the passers-by and enjoying two cappuccinos.

Flying over Lake Frome and the northern Flinders Ranges

We flew north-west from Broken Hill to Marree (which is south-east of Lake Eyre) over Lake Frome and the northern Flinders Ranges.  What a wonderful flight!  We flew low over Lake Frome, which is a large salt lake that still held pockets of water.  Flying low over the northern Flinders Ranges brought back memories of visiting this area with my brother in March 2010.  We drove there from Wilpena Pound and stayed a couple of nights at Arkaroola.  We enjoyed the Ridgetop Tour that takes you to Sillers Lookout to view Lake Frome and we also flew around the ranges.  So, it was wonderful to approach in the opposite direction from the east over the lake to the mountains.

Leaving the Flinders Ranges, the countryside became more barren and flat.  I saw the tiny settlement of Marree from the co-pilot’s seat and enjoyed the descent and landing on the small airstrip.  We disembarked and boarded the school bus for the short trip into town and to our accommodation.

Marree

Marree is an outback settlement of 87 people on the Oodnadatta Track.  Once it was a major place on the old Ghan Railway.  Cattle were driven down the Birdsville Track from Queensland, loaded on trains at Marree for shipment to Port Augusta and Adelaide.  Once 30 trains a week left Marree.  Today there is no railway as a new standard gauge railway was built, as was the main road, further to the west.

Marree is at the southern edge of the huge Artesian Basin that stretches from Queensland through NSW and the Northern Territory into South Australia.  The rim of the Basin follows to the north-west of Marree west of Lake Eyre, providing springs of fresh water along the way.  This is why the early settlers travelled that way – there was fresh water – called the Oodnadatta Track.  Further west there was no water and little water on the Birdsville track.

Barbara and I checked out our accommodation, which was in a new but incomplete portable style building.  We had two TVs plugged in – one on a chest of drawers and one on the floor.  There was no mirror or hanging space for towels or clothing.  The screen door could not be locked.  There was a circle marked on the ceiling over the shower for a non-existent exhaust fan.  There was a power point high on the wall for a non-existent air conditioner.  Thankfully, the evenings were cool and the temperature in the room was pleasant for sleeping under a doona.

Barbara and I wandered around looking at the old replica mosque, remains of the railway and station and on to the pub.  There we enjoyed the South Australian West End beer and were soon joined by others from our group.  We spent a pleasant hour or so chatting and then headed for the Roadhouse (next to our accommodation) for dinner.

A vegetarian would struggle in the outback where meat is king!  There was one vegetarian offering on the menu.  The first night I enjoyed lamb and the second, roast pork.  For drinks, you wandered around to the fridge or poured the wine from a cask into a glass, went to the cash register and paid.  I think the waitresses had to be German to work there.  I met four of them.  Their English was excellent (one said she learnt ‘Oxford English’ at school) and they enjoyed being there.  In the morning you could have a cooked breakfast but there was no choice of style.  You got bacon (so much I think they had and killed their own pigs), two eggs, half a tomato, mushrooms and toast – only white bread.  The second day Barbara requested no bacon and they obliged.  All the meals were hearty and provided quickly.

Lake Eyre by Road

Saturday we travelled to Lake Eyre South by school bus.  Reg, a local knowledgeable aboriginal, was our guide.  Our group was joined by six others which meant we were too many to fit in one bus.  Neville was the second driver.  He drove our bus on the way up and Reg on the way back.  Reg provided interesting commentary when he was with us.  He talked of the rail and cattle history.  Barbara mentioned she hoped he would talk more of the aboriginal story.

On the way up we stopped at one of the old Ghan workers accommodation.  Every ten miles, workers accommodation was provided for a team of seven – five fettlers, the gang boss and the cook.  There were about thirty between Marree and the next settlement of William Creek.  Each group of workers was responsible for ten miles of track, five miles in each direction.  Many of the workers were migrants from Europe who were shell-shocked when they found themselves in such isolated, arid and barren circumstances.  Water was trucked by rail to each group.

Next stop was by the dog fence.  At 5400 kilometres (3,355 miles), it is the longest manmade structure in the world.  It is designed to keep the dingoes on the northern side of the fence.

Then we visited a Mutonia Sculpture Park created by a mechanic, turned artist, Robin Cooke from Melbourne.  The first sculpture consisted of two old airplanes, side-by-side, noses in the ground.  We alighted from the bus and walked through the various sculptures of old pieces of metal welded together and arrived at an old homestead for a barbeque lunch of chops and sausages and various fresh salads provided by Reg’s family.

The Glebites - David,
Barbara, Baiba & Katharine

After a satisfying lunch we travelled further along the Oodnadatta Track and then turned right onto a private road that few people, such as Reg, are able to use.  This brought us to Lake Eyre South along the southern shore.  It was spectacular driving along the shoreline seeing lots of water and salt.  Lake Eyre consists of the south lake, filled by local watercourses and the north lake filled by overflow from flooding in western Queensland.  The water is retracting in both lakes but is further retracted in the south lake.  The north lake had filled for the first time in many years due to three seasons of floods in western Queensland – three years of flooding is the first time in white man’s time in Australia this has occurred.

The buses stopped and about half of us wandered along the lakeshore to meet the others at a point with a rock shelf.  The rock shelf made it possible to enter the water without sinking into the mud under the salt crust.  Three of us donned our swimming costumes and entered the water.  It was very warm within a couple of metres of the shore and still pleasant further out.  The lakes are shallow and are about 20 metres below sea level and are ten times saltier than the Dead Sea.  So, when I lay on my back to float, as long as I stretched my legs, I could not sink.  My feet floated above the surface and I could comfortably hold my head up.  It was like lying in a mouldable lounge chair.  I turned over to try some breaststroke but my feet lifted up out of the water and, with the shallowness, it was too much bother to try kicking my legs.

Around the lake there is much evidence of the old inland sea bed.  Such sections are very stony and barren with little or stunted growth.  We were amazed as Reg drove slowly through this section, avoiding running over tiny lizards.  He’d announce ‘there’s one’ and I would see nothing.  After a couple of such calls I too saw the white-light brown lizards.  I think this is an example of aboriginal affinity with their land.  They just see so much, so easily!

Our main stop on the way back was to explore the land on the rim of the Artesian Basin.  Within 50 metres of the road, Reg took us to a spot where he removed carefully placed stones and revealed fresh water lying just below the surface and invited us to drink.  He pointed out another uncovered pool of water nearby, used by the animals and suggested we not drink that.  Around about, water that had bubbled out of the Artesian Basin was lying in sizeable pools in a creek bed.  It was fascinating to see this fresh water.  However, Roxby Downs Mine, further to the west, pumps about 50 megalitres a day from the Artesian Basin.  We were reminded that for we humans, water and food are the most important things on earth.  There is much concern that too much water is being extracted from the Basin and it is being permanently depleted.  It would be tragic if we Australians destroyed this wonderful resource due to our greed to mine, farm and live in the desert.

Lake Eyre by Air

8.30 am, Sunday 18 September, we embarked on our 1.5 hour flight over Lake Eyre.  We were all filled with anticipation of something special – and it was – vast, arid and barren.  Again, I had the enjoyment and privilege of being in the co-pilot seat.

It was much quicker flying to Lake Eyre South than driving!  We flew over Lake Eyre South further east of where we drove.  The eastern side of the lake was dry and, so, we were flying over a vast extent of salt covered surface.  You could see the water on the western side and I think I identified where we drove to yesterday.  Lake Eyre South is 64 km (40 miles) long and 24 km (15 miles) wide and is fed by local drainage, mainly from the west.  Seventy-five millimetres (3 inches) of rain falling in the hills to the west will result in water flowing in to the lake.

The stretch between the South and North lakes was very barren with little and only low growth.  Thus, though there might be a lot of water in the vast lakes, the area is arid and barren.  The drainage system into Lake Eyre takes up about a sixth of the Australian continent and consists of western Queensland, a large slice of the Northern Territory, a small part of western NSW and a large area of South Australia.

Lake Eyre North is truly vast being 144 km (89 miles) long and 77 km (48 miles) wide.  Though there were large areas of salt around the shore, there was still a lot of water that stretched to the horizon in the north.  We flew far enough north over the lake to visit an island that had some pelicans that looked like small dots as we flew over them.  Bird life is on the water systems that lead into the lake rather than at the lake, as there is more food there for them.  The lake colour was mainly blue but varied to a purple in a couple of areas.  We flew further east over a minor river inflow on which there was a remote homestead and then back over the eastern side of the south lake to Marree.

If you want to read more about Lake Eyre, you can try the following websites:

•     International Lake Environment Committee

•     Wikipedia Lake_Eyre

•     Lake Eyre Basin

Flying Home

Tibouburra Family Hotel

Lunch was scheduled in Tibouburra, north western NSW, which was also scheduled for refuelling.  However, there was no fuel in Tibouburra.  The pilots arranged an extra stop in White Cliffs (opal mining), then Dubbo and on to Bankstown.

From Marree we flew over varied low lying countryside including salt lakes, fresh water lakes and rows of vegetated sand dunes.  At Tibouburra our transport consisted of three vehicles, including two SES (State Emergency Services) vehicles working in relays to ferry the nineteen of us into town and back.  Tibouburra is a small and attractive town that Barbara and I are interested in visiting by road, next time.  We enjoyed a light lunch of chicken and fresh salads at the Family Hotel.  This hotel is full of wall murals and hanging paintings by famous Australian artists.  Our hostess talked about the town, the hotel, the artists and the art in the hotel.  Afterwards, we visited the National Parks Office and the museum in the old court house.

Between Tibouburra and White Cliffs we flew over a lot of fresh water lakes.  The amount of water surprised me, showing that there can be a lot of water lying around from good rains.  There is some talk about trying to harness this water.  I think it will evaporate this time before any scheme is worked out.  The White Cliffs Airport was unattended when we landed.  The pilots rang their contact, who arrived about ten minutes later and soon the planes were refuelled.

I found the flight to Dubbo was tedious.  I felt sleepy, the cabin was warm and stuffy.  The land transformed into large fields and farms as we approached Narromine, west of Dubbo.  I was relieved when we arrived in Dubbo, where I purchased a refreshing passionfruit flavoured yoghurt.  Feeling rejuvenated I enjoyed the flight on to Bankstown.  We flew over lots of farms and then into hilly country with lots of trees.  We arrived at the Blue Mountains as the sun was low in the cloudy sky behind us.  I could pick out Mount Victoria, Blackheath, Katoomba and Leura as we passed to the south-west.  Then we were above white fluffy cloud covering the rest of the mountains.  The sun set behind us as we descended over the mountains and the lighted western Sydney metropolis, landing safely at Bankstown Airport.

We enjoyed our experiencing of seeing so much of Australia at close quarters within four days.  However, we are disinclined to take another such flying holiday.  I confess that flying several legs in a stuffy small plane in a day is not my cup of tea.  I would rather fly in a comfortable plane and pick up a hire car or drive the whole way.  Still, I recommend the experience and it enabled us to see Lake Eyre.  Heron Airlines, the tour arrangers can be found at: http://www.heronairlines.com.au/

Reprise

We boarded the bus to take us home but being us: we were going out to dinner – gluttons for punishment!  We arranged to be dropped at the corner of Missenden Road and King Street, Newtown; said goodbye to our fellow passengers, grabbed our luggage and walked a short distance east along King Street to The Rice Paper Restaurant.  There we enjoyed a family dinner.

We had a wonderful meal, in a well appointed restaurant with great company.  We heartily recommend The Rice Paper Restaurant at 131 King Street, phone (02) 8065 7271 or (02) 9090 2681.  We intend to have regular family dinners there.