Coongie Lakes: In the Outback region of South Australia

From the air the early stages of the flight to Coongie Lake give little idea of what's to come. We fly over sandy scrubby country with occasional signs of early pastoral activity and every so often an oil satellite station punctures the desert floor.

“It's one of several satellite facilities of various sizes around the basin which all feed into the Moomba plant.”

Catriona McTaggart is an environmental officer with Santos and she's come out here to see for herself the wild freshwater system so rare in the Australian outback.

“This is the bottom end of the Embarka Swamp which is on a main channel of the Cooper Creek. It floods out into this area and it flows through here so there's lot's of tiny channels and lignum bush in this area.”

From swamp to creek and back to swamp - the north arm of the Cooper that feeds the Coongie Lakes system is like a myriad of capillaries bringing water, which is the lifeblood of the desert.

“After Innamincka where the river is quite narrow, it floods. The river floods out and it just sort of breaks up into a number of these channels. Some are bigger than others and these are just some of the more major channels of the creek. It's a fairly complex flow, fairly slow. You can see it's quite flat everywhere so it just flows in these channels and meanders across.”

As we press on the vastness of the Strezlecki Desert becomes more apparent and so too the timeless forces which continue to shape the terrain.

“There are north south trending dunes across the desert area and they're that way because of the predominant wind direction. They are just blown that way.”

Out in the distance we see the point where a creek becomes a lake and then another lake… and another. In his search for the inland sea, the legendary explorer Captain Charles Sturt ventured far into the interior of Australia. It's a pity he never made it to Coongie Lake. But this is no Inland Sea - Coongie Lake and the other lakes, which make up this system, are an extraordinary phenomenon in the desert and every so often even Coongie Lake dries out.

Thankfully not the day that we flew over what has now been declared a National Park following a landmark deal involving the State Government, conservationists, pastoralists and the oil and gas producer, Santos.

On the ground where the dunes meet the water, the colours of the desert come alive in groundcovers like the rattle pod bush.

It's a fragile web of life out here in a harsh and difficult environment and that's why certain restrictions apply. Generators, powerboats or campfires are not allowed and as a result much of the undergrowth is still intact.

“For a desert environment the plant is astonishing. Some three hundred and fifty species have been collected here from the magnificent coolabahs which line the banks of Coongie Lake to the River Redgums, canegrass, spinifex and the buckbush or rolly polly as it's commonly known.”

It's undergrowth which holds the dunes intact and provides a home for the more than two hundred bird species which have been identified here. Little wonder that more and more campers are making the two hundred kilometre trip from Innamincka to Coongie - campers like Bronte Scholz, his wife Tamara and little Jasmine who've now found their own little piece of desert paradise.

“It’s magic, beautiful and untouched. I love the way the red sand comes down and meets the water. It's beautiful.”

Occasionally you'll find tracks in the sand from perhaps a dingo in search of food. For millennia this was a land of abundance for all who've called it home. We came across an Aboriginal midden full of tiny shell fragments and the occasional cutting stone. It is proof that the local Aboriginal people dined out on native mussels here for thousands of years.

Now it’s a body of water, which is attracting more and more people in search of that unique blend of desert, and water.

“It's quite an extraordinary body of water and it brings with it an enormous number of animals, birds, trees and plants and there's a really rich ecosystem happening here. It’s very busy during the day, at night and in the sky.”

From the sky the Forked Tail Kite takes in all the glory of Coongie Lakes, an inland mosaic of lakes which puts paid to the notion of Australia's dead heart.

Coongie Lakes is 103 kilometres northwest of Innamincka. For details regarding a Desert Parks Pass or Park Entry Permit contact 1800 816 078. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards.sa.com.au