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The Strzelecki Track is steeped in history: discovered and named by Charles Sturt in 1845 the Strzelecki Creek and the subsequent discovery of the Cooper Creek opened the area. The actual "track" was originally blazed by Harry Redford a cattle thief droving 1000 stolen cattle over untracked country from central Qld to Adelaide. The thief was caught out but due to his heroic efforts in establishing a new stock route he was let off and became one of the greatest drovers in Australian history.

But the tragic death of explorers Burke and Wills on the banks of the Cooper Creek near present day INNAMINCKA is the region's most famous incident. In 1861 the South Australian government offered 2000 pounds to the first explorer to reach the top end of the continent. The Victorians at that time were brashly rich and with much pomp and ceremony Robert O'Hara Burke left Melbourne with his team of 20 men, 18 camels, 22 horses and 20 tonnes of food bound to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria. Unfortunately, Burke was not a bushman, had absolutely no tracking or surveying experience and was extremely hot tempered. His second in command was not initially Wills but a fellow who had an unfortunate habit of feeding the horses rum! When Burke discovered this he sacked the man, smashed their entire supplies of rum and appointed William John Wills to the position.

Their race to be the first to reach the top of Australia was fraught with incident but amazingly three of them actually made it to the top and returned to their supply depot at Cooper Creek. They were Burke, Wills and King. The tragedy is that they were over a month overdue and the supply team had retreated south only 9 hours before their arrival. The supply team had left supplies buried beneath a tree which bore the markings "Dig 3ft NW" and various other markings. The tree is now called the Dig Tree and is protected by the Qld pastoral commission. It's just a half day drive from Innamincka to visit the tree and the surrounding area where plaques mark the grave sites of Burke and Wills who died of a combination of starvation and poisoning from eating berries after the supplies ran out and they couldn't make their way south. Only King survived - he had the sense to befriend the aborigines and when Burke and Wills died they cared for him until he was rescued in 1861.

Getting to the Strzelecki Track is often done from LYNDHURST but from our position at Arkaroola in the Gammon Ranges it is far better to access the track from the back way through some stations, which is how I've written these notes.

Leaving ARKAROOLA via the track to MT HOPELESS the scenery and the climate changes dramatically. Not far from Arkaroola you leave the ranges behind you and the further north you travel the terrain rapidly becomes what you’d expect the desert to be with wide barren plains. The track is wide and hard and you can easily move at over 80km/hr.

The Old Strzelecki Track is pretty barren from here to Innamincka but there are a few odd sights to keep you interested. The plain is dotted with numerous oil wells with brightly coloured pumps operating full-time like giant meccano sets. 

We had to make camp pretty much by the side of the road because it was nearing dark. Had we realised it was going to be a wet night we might have pushed on. We attempted to make an early start the following morning to arrive in Innamincka before lunch but as soon as we put our wheels on the track we sunk in the mud and with no traction to hold the trailer on the track we had pangs of deja vu and pulled over to wait for the track to dry out. We were almost car-bound because the mud was so slippery to walk upon and of course it clung to the soles of our shoes - but we enjoyed the time to catch up with our reading. After lunch we'd had enough waiting and had a go at the road. It was hard going, slipping and sliding with the trailer acting like an anchor and pulling the car all over the track.We travelled for about 40km in low range but it took about 2 hours. The Old Strzelecki Track meets up with the main Moomba Road and with the soggy conditions we decided to take the easier road into Innamincka (but first we had to clean off the mud with the spade so that the wheels would go 'round). Sorry, no photos.

At the turn off to Innamincka cars came from everywhere and as we stopped to talk to a driver heading out another 4 vehicles pulled in - all wanting to know about the road conditions. The roads here are really easy (when its dry) and totally unpredictable when it's wet. The access road to Innamincka is the best bit of road we've seen since leaving the bitumen and there's a whole 50km of it to get to the township.

Innamincka Pub

INNAMINCKA wasn't quite what we expected but then nowhere ever is! There's the pub, the store, the park headquarters and the hive of it all - the free public shower block. There is no fresh water in Innamincka so washing, showering and drinking is all creek water (Cooper Creek) and its muddy. Everyone seems to come for a day and then move on. There are plenty of places around to move on to with lots of free bush camping on good waterholes, along the Cooper Creek or up to Coongie Lakes. We camped on what's called the Town Common which is a stretch of about 2km along the Cooper Creek and within easy walking distance of the town facilities. We set up our tent and used it as a base camp for our exploring of the area.

We timed our arrival in Innamincka to coincide with their Sunday Roast dinner special which draws a crowd of anything from 50-200 depending on the time of year. We got talking to the manager who asked if we were still going to be around on Tuesday night.