Journey thru the most central town in Australia

by Tony B
(Melbourne, Australia)

I recently traveled from Quilpie in the Queensland Channel Country to Tibooburra, North of Broken Hill, NSW. There were some concerns about flood-damaged roads, but it's great country if you know what you're about. The route took me through Eromanga, which is the town that's further away from the sea than any other town in Australia. The road is all bitumen until you get to Noccundra, which is the start of the rough stuff. It's all potholes, bulldust and washouts. It doesn't pay to be too adventurous or you'll come unstuck. So it's sensible to let your tyres down a bit and take it easy. If you do, you'll get through, and you'll see some wonderful sights along the way. For example, we saw a pair of dingoes slinking off into the scrub, looking over their shoulders as they went. We came to some beautiful waterholes and watched literally hundreds of budgerigars taking a drink.

Anyway, the Queensland Outback is looking wonderful at the moment after a good summer of very welcome rain, so my suggestion is to get out there while it lasts. The Diamantina River, the Cooper Creek, Eyre Creek and all of their tributaries are flowing into Lake Eyre at the moment, and it's a fantastic sight, (June 2010), so get out the maps and start planning. Take your kids if you can, they may never see the likes of this again.