Dig Tree (The) - Ron exlores the Outback region of South AustraliaWe head off on our search of the famous Dig Tree on the Cooper Creek with legendary outback pilot, Dick Lang at the controls of our twin engine aircraft. As we head north through heavy cloud and into the clearing vistas of the Flinders Ranges, this one-time teacher, keeps his 10 passengers enthralled with tales of men who understood this country better than most.
"Goyder made an expedition across South Australia," announced Dick. "He was determined that he would look for the twelve-inch rainfall belt."
Back in the 1860s, Surveyor General, George Goyder did it by carefully examining the trees and grasses below us - noting that softer grasses grew in more than twelve inches of rain - hard grasses in less.
"By moving backwards and forwards all the way across South Australia he was able to find where the twelve inch rainfall line went. It's called an isohyet and it became known as Goyder's Line."
Today we're pressing on much further north, over country that sapped the will and soul of brave pioneers who tried to grow wheat on the plains that run down from the spectacular gorges of the Flinders Ranges.
After refuelling at Leigh Creek we begin our final leg of today's expedition to Napper Merrie, just over the SA Border in outback Queensland.
For many on board, the trip is a pilgrimage to a site sacred for anyone interested in Australian exploration. On the way we pass the Gammon Ranges and Mount McKinlay... named after the South Aussie bushman sent to find the ill-fated Burke and Wills.
Just past the Gammons - a salt lake that's a fossil mecca for those interested in the giants who once roamed this part of South Australia. If you've ever been to the Wonambi Fossil Centre at Naracoorte, the mechanised mega fauna on show, give you some idea of what once lived down here.
"This became one of Australia's most famous fossil reserves," said Dick. "There are many, many giant skeletons of the Diprotodon taken from Lake Callabonna."
Today, Lake Callabonna is protected and the only way you can see it is from the air. Soon, a ribbon of life can be seen in the distance. It's the Cooper Creek - a place steeped in triumph and tragedy.
On the Napper Merrie airstrip we meet Bomber, custodian of this airstrip, where years before Desert Dick Lang landed his DC-3s. He's been coming to a famous tree on the banks of the Cooper since the 60s.
It was from here that Robert O'Hara Bourke, William John Wills, John King and Charles Gray bravely ventured on to their ultimate goal - the Gulf of Carpentaria - successfully crossing the country from south to north. Burke had told Brahe and others who remained behind to wait here for three months. If Burke hadn't made it back by then, they were to head south to another base camp at Menindie near what is now Broken Hill. As Dick explained, Brahe waited and waited.
"Brahe had a riot on his hands. The other three men were complaining because they wanted to go at the end of three months. They were feeling ill," explained Dick.
In fact, Brahe and his angry colleagues waited here for four months and when they finally left they hacked out a famous inscription in a gum tree before burying a camel box full of supplies.
"He wrote dig on that tree and they smoothed the area over so that the aboriginal people wouldn't find it and dig it up. April the 21st or thereabouts, April 61."
It was the very day that Burke, Wills and King would stagger back to the camp to find it empty. Brahe and his group had abandoned it just hours earlier.
In one of the cruellest twists of fate, a mere matter of hours on an expedition spanning almost a year - would result in agonising death. But for that part of the Burke and Wills tale, which covers so much of inland Australia we again take to the air and head to Innamincka in South Australia. From here the pilot becomes the bus driver and we drive across gibber country, which explains just what the men were up against as they stumbled deliriously across the desert desperate for help.
Soon we reach the final resting-place of Robert O'Hara Burke. Wills died not that far from here. Today it's like an oasis in the desert but for Burke and Wills, in their debilitated state, the Cooper was a world away from sanity and salvation.
"For them coming to this place would have been like us landing on the moon," said Dick.
With the help of the local aborigines King survived for several weeks until he was found. Burke and Wills, on the other hand died ugly deaths in one of the harshest but most beautiful parts of inland Australia.
Desert Dick Lang runs regular flights into this part of outback Australia, staying overnight at the Innamincka Pub before heading further north. For bookings contact Desert Air. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
"The Great Outback Flight"
3 day accommodated flight
From $1,699 per person
Contact Dick LangPublished 25th February 2007
