Cooper Creek
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1. July 3 2000 - Broken Hill, NSW - Trip Starts!!


We joined the "Great Divide" Tag-a-long tour at Broken Hill. There were 13 vehicles plus 2 fearless tour leaders, David (D.B.) and Tony. Here we see all vehicles clean, fuelled, packed up and ready to leave the Broken Hill Caravan Park. Most people were from Sydney, with one from ACT, and two from Qld.

From Broken Hill we travelled up the "Silver City" highway through Milparinka and Tibooburra, and up through "Olive Downs" before stopping for our first "bush" camp on a red clay pan close to the Qld/NSW border.

2.     Camerons Corner


Cars and planes vie for road space and parks  outside the store at Camerons Corner - the intersection of Qld, SA and NSW.  

3.     The Dog Fence



Past Camerons Corner and into the red dirt alongside the Dog Fence - 6000 kms of fence still maintained and designed to stop dingoes crossing.

4. Collecting Firewood


From Camerons Corner we drove to Merty Merty and up the old Strezlecki track through the Moomba Oil and Gas fields to Innamincka on Cooper Creek.

We stopped en route to collect wood to make sure we had a good camp fire in the National Park at the large and beautiful Cullyamurra waterhole on Cooper Creek near Innamincka. 

5. Dinner at the Innamincka Pub


Innamincka is on Cooper Creek and caters for the tourist - we enjoyed a $2 hot-warm-cold shower, and a good meal at the friendly Pub.

A highlight of Innamincka was a 2hour boat trip on Cooper Creek - huge numbers of water birds - egrets, pacific heron, white faced heron, nankeen night kestrel, ducks, corellas, ibis, fairy martins etc !! We also visited the spot where King was discovered living with the Aboriginals - the lone survivior of Burke and Wills expedition in 1861.

 6. Cooper Creek

This photo is taken from the Burke and Wills bridge over Cooper Creek.  

The Cooper flooded to 7.1 metres at Innamincka this year, whereas in 1990 it rose to 11 metres.

Lake Eyre was only 40% full this year, with 80% surface coverage, but,  contrary to media reports, Cooper Creek will NOT flow into Lake Eyre in 2000. 

7. The Dig Tree, July 6 2000


The Dig Tree, where stores were buried for the fateful Burke and Wills expedition to the Gulf in 1861. Gray died returning from the Gulf. Burke's grave is about 10km downstream from the Dig Tree and Wills died a further 15km downstream.  

We visited Arabury Station in the middle of Sturts Stony Desert, and saw the spot where Burke and Wills lost their camels while searching for water. What a torturous trip it must have been walking back across Sturts miserable! Stony Desert to Cooper Creek!

Also en route was the historic Cordillo Downs Woolshed, a massive sandstone shearing shed which had 38 shearing stands in the 1880's.

            More please!        


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