Birdsville and beyond: Ron travels some of the Outback region of South Australia
Every month, legendary South Australian tourism operator and pilot 'Desert' Dick Lang takes a bunch of city slickers for a three day jaunt into the Australian outback. They fly across the rolling fields of the mid-north and past the epic sweep of the Flinders Ranges and into Burke and Wills territory for a quick history lesson at the famous dig tree on the Cooper Creek.
By day three the stories told on board Dick's Piper Chieftain aircraft begin to fit into an overall mosaic of Australian bush folklore especially when we touch down at Birdsville on our way home.
The very name of Birdsville evokes isolation and stories of Tom Kruse, the famous mailman and the cattlemen bringing stock down from the Queensland channel country. Now, tourists have certainly discovered the place. They come in coaches, air-conditioned four-wheel drives and light aircraft... But why do they come?
Well, some come to down a "coldie" in the famous Birdsville Hotel and take in the amazing array of stockmen's hats. Each is a bushies sweaty tattered reminder of long hot days spent on the track. Long before the road trains took over, Birdsville was a major watering hole for drovers bringing cattle down through the vast expanse tributaries fanning out from rivers like the Thomson, the Barcoo and the Diamantina.
Lush green feed sustained the great mobs of cattle as they made their way from Queensland into South Australia for loading at the railhead at Marree. But once the cattlemen headed south from Birdsville, ground water became harder to find and stock were totally reliant on supplies below the surface, courtesy of bores sunk deep down into the Great Artesian Basin.
Here at Birdsville, boiling water gushes up from deep below - powering the noisy Birdsville Hydro Electric Power Station. Hot water from the Birdsville Bore comes from 5,000 feet down and it comes to the surface under enormous pressure. More than forty years ago it became the first major source of electric power for this remote outback town. Back then the women of Birdsville drew up a roster to make the most of this new and convenient power source.
Dick Lang: "Mrs Brookes could iron on Monday morning, Mrs Gaffney could iron on Monday afternoon and Mrs Clift could iron on Tuesday morning. So they had enough power but if anyone snuck in and tried to iron a shirt while someone else was ironing they blew all the fuses."
The bores along the Birdsville Track were staggered at thirty-mile intervals. Cattle could cover about fifteen miles a day leaving them one night without water before earning a much needed drink the following day.
On a Desert Dick Lang Safari you cover the ground a lot quicker. You fly over the foreboding Simpson Desert and the one thousand and forty seven sand dunes that separate Birdsville from Dalhousie Springs.
Soon the desert sands give way to an equally impressive expanse - Lake Eyre. It was here in 1965 that Sir Donald Campbell broke the land speed record in his famous Bluebird. For Dick Lang it's also been a place to test his sense of adventure. Dick's flown over it, driven round it and, like a true adventurer, has gone just one better.
Dick lang: "In 1974 I created my own small world record when I became the first man to ever water ski across Lake Eyre. And I did that with Kent Smith in 1974. We skied over the top of Malcolm Campbell's racetrack. Where he had been on the surface of Lake Eyre we were twenty four feet above it."
It's just one of many Dick Lang yarns that help explain the dramatic changes that take place in outback Australia. And help answer that perennial question... why do so many venture out into the heart of this stark Australian wilderness? Well after 40 years in the tourism game, Dick has his own view on that one.
Dick Lang: "I solemnly believe that the Australian character has evolved from the outback. Although we're now a nation of city dwellers I think we try and cling to this idea that we have an outback identity. And even people in the cities today driving out here like to think that the outback is part of their heritage, part of their blood and part of their character. So it's almost a pilgrimage for most people to make a trip at some stage of their lives into the outback."
Desert Dick Lang runs regular three-day accommodated flights into the outback. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
The Great Outback Flight
3 day accommodated flight
Bookings 8264 7200Published 30th March 2008
