Monthly Archives: April 2010

Questions

It is hard to visualise just how much land is covered by the floodwaters on Lake Eyre and the Coongie Lakes at the moment.

it is easy to see some amazing contrasts. So much green – shades of green that in some places defy belief.


Then there’s the normal colours of the desert interspersed with streams like the Cooper Creek that have burst their banks in countless places.

I am getting emails from people wanting to travel to the area in the months to come.

The main question being – will there be lots to see by the time we get there. In short, the answer is that the rest of this year will will remain a wonderland out there.

The Lakes will erupt with fish and bird life as well as plenty of healthy vegetation. The Coongie Lakes will probably hold water for a time next year.

Clearly William Creek will be the epicenter of all this activity and it would pay to contact the William Creek Hotel ( [email protected]) about accommodation and camping facilities etc.

Similarly you would be best advised to book with Wright Air for flights.


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Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary and the Prairie Hotel (Parachilna) will also provide fixed-wings flights over the waters.

Similarly flights will go from further south at Rawnsley Park Station.

Access to the area will also be made in time from Birdsville in Queensland and Innamincka on the Queensland, South Australian border once roads in those areas have dried out.

There’s an expression …”Don’t give up your day job….” As a travel agent the Sentimental Bloke will probably make a better photographer than a travel agent but there’s plenty of people who can help you.

Just use the links and the telephone for up-to-date information.

Travelling in this part of the world requires a bit (maybe a lot) of preparation.

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Desert Magic

It is almost as if the sand dunes of the Strzelecki Desert, like giant veins, are sucking up the ever increasing waters of Lake Eyre.

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On the Road

There’s a couple of projects in the pipeline so I’m parting company with the internet for a few days, hopefully to get some more pictures of the Flinders Ranges.

There’ll also be another trip to the Coongie Lakes and Lake Eyre on the drawing board.

The weather was a bit unkind for photography during the last shoot.

I’m giving myself a bit of leeway on the weather and will using an aircraft which will solve some of the technical problems I had on the last trip.

Enjoy some of the older pictures and feel free to comment – a bit of feedback is always encouraging.

Cheers

The Sentimental Bloke.

Posted in On the Road | 1 Comment

William Creek Pub

There’s not a lot between William Creek and the next stop in whatever direction you might be travelling. Apart from being a stop off on the Oodnadatta Track its probably best known at the closest outpost to Lake Eyre.

Suprising then that a town with a couple of houses, an airstrip and a caravan park has a top pub.

It wasn’t always that way. A decade or so ago, it wasn’t all that flash but it was famous because you could land a light aircraft right outside the front the of the hotel.

That’s changed but the hosptality and the food is top notch. The beer’s cold too, and that’s important.


Mim Ward and her partner Bruce Ross have recently taken over the hotel. Mim is well known for her association with the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna. She was also an event organiser for the Tourist Commission and ran a pub in Victoria.

The William Creek pub hasn’t got a website yet so I can’t put a link across to the site, however the email address is [email protected]

The hotel has just been elevated into my list of top 10 outback pubs.

Posted in Lake Eyre, Oodnadatta Track, Outback South Australia | 2 Comments

In the Groove

Perhaps one of the most recognised landmarks of Lake Eyre, by name at least , is the Warburton Groove.

It’s where the Warburton Creek runs into the lake at the very northern, or top end.

Over time when it floods, which isn’t too often, the waters have cut a channel in the lake bed.

I imagine it sounded a better option to our explorer forefathers than calling it the Warburton Ditch

Canon 5D Mk 1, Lens 24-70mm f2.8 L USM, f16 1/320sec ISO 400, polarising filter

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Outback Aviators

When I started flying there would be the occasional voice of a female pilot on the airwaves and even more rarely, you might meet one.

Now it’s entirely different.

The pilots who made it possible to get this current series of images of Lake Eyre and the Coongie Lakes are two competent young ladies flying for Wright Air

Tay


Heather

The girls are based out of William Creek, a tiny township on the Oodnadatta Track to the west of Lake Eyre. (Google Maps – William Creek, South Australia does not exactly have a lot of detail out there)

Wright Air does most of the flights over both areas from William Creek, although they pick up at Olympic Dam, Maree and Coober Pedy as well. The fleet are all high-winged Cessna aircraft which give unrestricted views of the waters.

Wright Air have been operating over Lake Eyre for a lot of years and their people really know the area well.

Arkaroola is another operator with lots of experience in the area too.

The waters in both the Coongie Lakes and Lake Eyre will be there to see for quite a few months to come and the increasing areas of lush green vegetation promise a bumper wildflower season in late winter and spring.

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Contrasts

Goyder Lagoon – a real contrast to the seemingly endless salt of Lake Eyre. The tentacles of water that pervade this swamp that’s south of Birdsville just go on and on.

Currently the most outstanding feature is the strong, rich, almost iridescent green colour that stretches for just about as far as the eye can see.

Goyder Lagoon is fed by the Diamantina River and sometimes if it fills, the overflow runs into Lake Eyre on it’s eastern shore – eventually meeting waters of the Warburton coming from the north.

It’s not hard to see why the early European explorers, Edward Eyre, John Stuart, George Goyder and others were looking for an inland sea.

Flying over it though it’s hard to imagine how they made it through such inhospitable terrain without the convenience of modern vehicles and equipment.

Canon 5D Mk 1, Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8L USM lens , f16, 1/320 ISO 400 AWB and f16 1/400 ISO 400, AWB. Unable to avoid refections in the first image.

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Reflections

Lake Eyre again at the northern end. Waters aren’t all that deep currently so they make a perfect mirror of the sky and the clouds above.

Different light, different angles make for an ever-changing and enchanting landscape.

Canon 5D Mk 1, Canon EF24-70 f2.8L USM lens @ 43mm f20 1/100 ISO 400

That link to the map of the area again Coongie Lakes and Lake Eyre

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Elusive Horizon

The image of Lake Eyre, close to the Warburton Groove loses a bit in the transfer to the web.

However when it’s printed full size the sands, the water channels and the blend at the horizon with the sky will be be evident in full detail.

Taken at 500 feet above the water near the northern end of the lake, it shows just how vast Lake Eyre is and how much waters is flowing into it.

Canon 5D Mk 1, Canon EF24-70 f2.8L USM lens, f10 1/400 ISO 400

Posted in Lake Eyre | 1 Comment

Oceans in the Desert Pt. 2

In the Simpson and the Strzelecki Deserts there are giant sand dunes that mostly run north to south.

Sometimes they are high as 60 metres (200 feet).

From the air the dunes around the Coongie Lakes look like giant veins.

In places the flood waters are just arriving.


In others the waters are already filling the sands between the dunes. They’ll hatch millions of fish eggs lying dormant in the sands.

About the best map I can find of the Coongie Lakes and Lake Eyre where the food waters are flowing is
link

The waters are running in from the Cooper Creek to the East and the Warburton Creek and Diamantina River are filling Lake Eyre from the north.

Flying over this area over the last few days in a Wright Air Cessna 207 certainly was the way to see this spectacular part of Outback Australia.

Both images taken with Canon 5D Mk 1, Canon Lens 24-70 mm f2.8L USM Zoom. First shot f22 1/60 ISO 400. Second Image f16 1/100 ISO 400, polarising filter.

Posted in Coongie Lakes, Lake Eyre | Leave a comment