The Strzelecki Track & Cooper Creek: Far North of South Australia

If you are a fan of outback South Australia then you won't find anything more out-back than the Strzelecki Track.

This strip of dust and dirt threads through the Strzelecki Desert. The country here is the stuff of legend; it's usually either in drought or flood. The people who live here are as legendary as where they choose to live. The area was named by the first Colonial explorer into the region - Charles Sturt. He passed through in 1845 and named it after an eccentric Polish explorer Paul Edmund de Strzelecki (he was the first European to climb the nation's highest point which he named Mount Kosciusko). The track was originally a stock route from the Northern Flinders town of Lyndhurst and Innaminka which sits on the edge of the Cooper Creek. Innaminka is more than 800 kilometres from Adelaide and remains an oasis in the gibber desert.

It started when the Government decided to tax the livestock travelling between the colonies of South Australia and Queensland. The delays meant that a pub sprang up to water the stockmen. After federation the Customs House disappeared but the pub remains and it's been joined by a general store and a National Parks Office. Innaminka also was a base for John Flynn's inland mission, a forerunner of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The town did close down completely for a period but was revived by tourists and the nearby Moomba oil and gas fields. Now visitors can mail letters, buy a paper, have a counter meal and even enter the yellowbelly fish catching board of honour in the Hotel. The Cooper Creek is an artery that pumps lifesaving water into this harsh environment.

After hours of bull dust, visitors often can't believe the river red gums, egrets, zebra finches, eagles, spoonbills and flocks of galahs and pelicans. The Cooper was named by Sturt in 1845 and because it was so low he called it a Creek. This is something of a misnomer because three rivers feed the Cooper and it often runs seven metres deep and pours out eventually into Lake Eyre. The fishing is tremendous on the Cooper and there are no carp. It is possible to camp and canoe and the water, although a little muddy, is drinkable. One great way to see the Cooper is with Peter Ware and his Cooper Discoverer Tours. Peter takes bookings from the Innaminka Hotel and then charts a course along the river stopping to visit the memorial to the explorers Burke and Wills who perished here in 1861.

Robert O'Hara Burke led an expedition from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. On the way they made a base camp on the Cooper and after Burke, William John Wills, Charles Grey and John King made it north, they returned to the Cooper only to find the others in the party had gone the day before. The rereating party had left a note carved into a tree reading DIG 3FT N.W. APR 21 1861. It was a reference to digging for supplies but the men were so weak that they soon perished. Only King, who had befriended local Aborigines, survived. The DIG tree remains as does a memorial to the men. However Burke's is a grave without a body as his corpse was later removed to a cemetry in Melbourne. European history fades in comparison to the first Australians.

Early evidence is at Cullyamurra waterhole where carvings are thought to have been made up to 40,000 years ago. Anthropologists suggest the distinctive markings were carved into the stone using hard, flint-like rocks. For the independent traveller the Coongie Lakes system begins about 85 kilometres north-west of Innaminka. A Desert Parks Pass is needed to visit and there are camping grounds available.

This area is not a Sunday drive. It can be dangerous and trips should be well planned. However it also a diverse and beautiful part of the outback, rich in nature and history. For more information you can contact Flinders Ranges & Outback Tourism on 1800 633 060, Innaminka Hotel 08 8675 9901 Innaminka Trading Post (some accommodation available) 08 8675 9900 or email info@postcards.sa.com.au