An Outback Experience

June 1999

Flinders Ranges

It was June 1999 and our Forester had 7000 km on the clock when Julie, Justin and myself headed off to the Flinders Ranges via Birdsville. Day one saw us camped on the Ward River just west of Charleville. That was the boring part of the trip out of the way. We had a quarter of an inch of rain that night and as I walked around the tent next morning the mud just stuck to my shoes till I gained height just by walking around. Eventually we were off towards Windorah and Birdsville.

After Windorah the country changes to the amazing red hued sand hills with wild flowers starting to emerge. We drove most of the day and ended up at a beautiful desert campsite on a creek before Beetoota. By 11:30am next day we were walking into the Birdsville Pub for a counter lunch and a cold beer, my first visit for 27 years. The pub just oozes character. Birdsville is about ten times as big as it was in 1972. After lunch we headed south down the famous Birdsville track. These days it is an excellent dirt road and 100 kph average is easy to maintain.

Birdsville Pub

By 3:30 pm we were I Ok from Mungerannie,the only petrol station on the track when we slowed for one of the many spoon drains. We suddenly realized we had a flat tyre so we stopped to change it. While I was doing this Justin noticed the front tyre had a grape fruit sized bulge in it. We had two spares but one was not mounted on a rim, so we kept the front one on and limped into Mungerannie. Fortunately Mungerannie has John, the tyre man so we camped in the excellent campsite area and made arrangements for John to see to the tyres next morning.

As I emerged from my tent next day I noticed another tyre had gone flat! That was three Bridgestone Dueller HT tyres in about 10km - one was a sidewall gash, another a damaged side wall from hitting a large gibber and the third was a simple crown puncture. So after consulting with John we decided to throw two away , fix the puncture and mount my second spare on a rim. As a spare he found a tyre which was as close in diameter (a mere $180.00) by this stage Julie was in a stage of major depression and threatening to throw herself into the excellent spa and end it all! However as we headed down to Maree her spirits rose and by the time we got to camp in the Gammon Ranges she was back to her usual cheerful self. The Gammon ranges are as ancient rugged Nat Park with lots of good camping areas, although the road was marked 4x4 it was quite a good dirt road by QLD standards.

Marree Hotel

Day 5 saw us heading south to the magnificent Flinders Ranges. We spent two days here, a lovely area although we found Wilpena Pound was a bit over rated.

On the 7th day the Forester was turned north to Lyndhurst then northeast to Innaminka along the Strzlecki track. This track was also an excellent dirt road however that did not stop us getting another flat at Moomba about 100km from Innaminka. That last 100km to Innaminka was stressful, as by now we had no spares left. So it was with much relief when we pulled into the town to camp on the Cooper. The tyre man here actually was able to sell me a second hand Yokohama 205.70.15 tyre (the exact size) for $50.00. So we had a spare again with only about 300k to the nearest bitumen at Jackson.

Before we left Innaminka we parked outside the pub next to a Forester G.T. It was not long before the owner came out and did a double take to see us parked next to him. We chatted and be was very interested in the Scorpion Lift Kit. He was a true Subaru enthusiast as his road car was an S.T.I.. This was our shortest day as we had a late start and we detoured around to see the "Dig Tree", you travel along a horribly corrugated road to get to it then it costs $10 to see the tree. We camped near Jackson oil fields near a pretty dry creek bed, our last desert campsite.

Cooper Creek near the Dig Tree

Day 9 we were back through Cunnamulla on sealed roads, camping 60km from Bollon on the Nebine Creek. I was just about to sit down and enjoy a beer after setting up camp when I noticed grease splattered inside the RH rear wheel arch. Yes horror of horrors I had done a CV boot! When I reach Bollon next day Julie perched herself in the pub while I purchased some grease and managed to force some back into the boot (via a rubber glove) and put on a plastic bandage held by rubber bands. This arrangement worked quite well and stayed on for the next 700km while we drove home via St. George and Goondiwindi .

In the 10 days we covered about 5000km - about 2000km were on dirt roads (mostly good condition), however, punctures are quite common on these roads due to the sharp stones. Some advice from the two bush tyre repairers we saw was not to over inflate tyres on these roads, about 28 PSI is usually ok! Interestingly, most punctures are slow punctures with a piece of stone pushing through the crown of the tyre. They said that sidewall tears are not common.

Gammon Ranges Landscape

Before we started the trip I was worried that it might be hard to find camp sites. However it turned out that camp sites were very numerous especially west of Charleville. All you do is look for the little side tracks that run off next to creeks at every crossing. It is surprising how many creek crossings there are even around Birdsville way. If you find a good campsite and it is windy move camp so it is sheltered by a bush or small grove of trees. It is amazing how much difference these make to a comfortable camp.

The desert camps were our favourites as they are clean, uncrowded, and have plenty of firewood. Camps on Coopers Creek and the like sound good but tend to be bare, dirty, crowded and no firewood.

We carried probably 100kg of recovery equipment and spares. (tyres, tyre changing gear, exhaust jack, winch, solar panel, chains, etc,), we took a fridge with a dual battery set up (in the boot) food and gear for a week, roof rack, Jerry cans, GPS, even an EPIRB in case we got really off track. We tried to keep our camping gear light. I weighed everything that went in., even so it was easy to exceed the Gross Vehicle Mass especially if the Jerry cans were filled. If a few vehicles share recovery gear weight can be reduced considerably.

Even though we didn't need all of this gear on this trip we took it as a trial run for more adventurous trips. We can't wait to get out to the desert again. We want to cross the Simpson and visit places like the Canning and the Kimberleys.

John Shera SC466

Editor's Note - To read about another Subaru Desert crossing (with next to no tyre damage) see Subas Across the Simpson