Flightseeing Lake Eyre

BY JAMES SHRIMPTON

Water from heavy rains continues to pour through the Channel Country into usually-dry Lake Eyre, which by mid-June could be 100 per cent filled for one of the few times since the lake's discovery in 1840.

The prediction came from Graham Reid, who with his wife Debbie conducts regular 4000km "flightseeing" day tours from Brisbane to Lake Eyre, across the South Australian border southwest from Birdsville.

Graham said after last weekend's tour that he was amazed at the increase in the brownish water over the lake's salt flat surface when compared with his visit a week prior, when it was about 50 per cent covered.

He forecast that with continued flows from rivers and tributaries, it would soon better last year's figure of 70 per cent, then head for the century within weeks, something believed to have happened only three times in 170 years.

Meanwhile, the rains have transformed the landscape around Birdsville and the 280km between that historic town and the closest point of Lake Eyre (North), separated from its southern section by the Goyder Channel.

It looks more like the Painted Desert of South Australia near Arkaringa, well to the west of Lake Eyre.

From the Reids' Dash-8 aircraft with its 36 passengers, widening sections of greenery were seen around the rivers and creeks, with hundreds of pools of rainwater both large and small among the claypans and the red and black rocks.

The Diamantina River, which feeds Lake Eyre, at one point flowed backwards for a while because of the volume of water it was carrying, Graham said.

(Was it significant that our hostess gave instructions to passengers on all five take-offs on how to don a lifejacket should the plane make an emergency landing in water - in the desert?)

Lake Eyre is Australia's sixth largest lake and also its lowest - up to 15m below sea level.

The Lake Eyre Basin covers 1,140,000 square kilometres, or about one-sixth of Australia.

The southern part of the lake at 64km by 27km is dwarfed by the northern section at 144km by 77km.

The northern lake includes Madigan Gulf where one feature is Campbell Point, named for the late Briton Donald Campbell who set a world land speed record of 648.73kmh on the lake's salt flats in 1964.

A year previously, his first record attempt had been washed out by heavy rains which partly flooded his course.

One group now watching the broadening waters of the lake is the Lake Eyre Yacht Club, which on the rare occasions when the water is deep enough, operate their craft from two small huts visible from the air.

The club, with its headquarters in Marree, has scheduled its first regatta in July but not on Lake Eyre, which may not be deep enough, but at Lake Killamperunna where Cooper Creek crosses the Birdsville Track.

Yachting on Lake Eyre can present problems - for instance, you can launch your boat in shallow water only for winds to blow it back onto the salt, leaving it stranded.

Graham Reid, a West Australian with experience in conducting coach tours (and driving road trains) in Australia before taking to the skies with his Travel West company, displays an encyclopaedic knowledge of southeastern Queensland and the Outback country beyond.

During the flight he identified every road and track, every river (the Warrego, Paroo, Bulloo and Diamantina) and other waterways including Cooper Creek where explorers Robert Burke and William Wills set up a stores depot in 1860 on their doomed attempt to cross Australia from south to north.

(The 150th anniversary of the Burke and Wills mission is being celebrated this year with events in Melbourne and the Outback; Travel West will take a role).

Graham also identified the vast cattle stations we passed over, their history, dimensions and ownership details.

Cattle on these stations in the Channel Country are the source of Australia's prized organically-produced Obe beef products, most of which are exported.

Graham says flying is the best way to tour the area, with planes able to drop as low as 150 metres, depending on weather conditions.

Maps of the Birdsville area, the Simpson Desert and around Lake Eyre provide warnings for four-wheel drive explorers. Some samples:

* "Live sand dunes in this area often make travelling difficult."

* "The exact position and condition of this road is not known."

* "The track is not maintained and becomes impassable when wet."

One challenge for the 4WD tourist in the region is to tackle the 90m-tall sandhill known as Big Red - anyone facing it should be advised that it's easier to make it from east to west rather than the opposite direction.

Our flight began at 7.30am from the Brisbane Jet Base near the main airport and headed first for Charleville to take on Graham and Debbie Reid and three more passengers.

After passing Haddon Corner where southwestern Queensland meets northeastern South Australia, we refuelled at Birdsville which was almost cut off during floods earlier this year - some tracts nearby are still under water.

For the next two hours and 20 minutes cameras were kept busy as we flew over parts of the Simpson and Sturt Stony deserts then Lake Eyre, with many spectacular sights and expert commentary from Graham throughout.

Back in Birdsville, known as Australia's most isolated town, all passengers headed for the historic Birdsville Hotel which dates back to 1884 - although it had to be rebuilt after a fire in 1979 - where Graham shouted us a drink and we travellers checked off another item on our bucketlist, Jack Nicholson style.

IF YOU GO

Travel West operates regular one-day and occasional two-day tours by Skytrans Dash-8 aircraft to Birdsville and Lake Eyre.

Bookings are heavy and the next available one-day tours are on August 28 and September 18, priced at A$1499 p.p.

The company also offers a variety of other flying tours to various parts of Queensland, to Uluru in the Northern Territory and to the Flinders Ranges and the Barossa Valley in South Australia.

Flights to Birdsville can be combined with a 4WD trip to Lake Eyre.

- AAP