Birdsville Track

Template: Infobox several high-level roads / maintenance / AU -AD

States:

South Australia / Queensland

The Birdsville Track is a dirt road in the Australian outback. The road is 517 km long and connects the southern Australian city Marree to Birdsville in the south of Queensland. The road crosses the Tirariwüste, the Sturt Stony Desert and the Strzelecki Desert.

History

The road was built in the 1860s to allow the cattle drive from North Queensland and the Northern Territory to the nearest railway connections in Port Augusta and Marree later. Soon the track was also an important route for the mail to remote areas and farms.

Until the 1930s, the road was only passable for cattle drives and camel caravans. These days, the route is regularly maintained and is considered easy to drive, especially after rainfall but can the passage be problematic. Mungeranie, a hamlet with a population of three 204 kilometers north of Marree, is the only place where vehicles can be refueled.

Course

In Marree the Birdsville Track from the Oodnadatta Track ( D95 ) to the north - north-east branches. The Birdsville Track crosses the Dingo fence between the ruins of the settlement of the same name Harry Lake Salt Lake and Clayton. Further north, at Etadunna, he crossed the Cooper Creek and then leads to the Norden.durch Tirari Desert desert him. There is also Mungeranie where the northwest a 51 km long access road branches off to the Kalamurina and the only tank option is on the way to Birdsville.

The trail continues through the Sturt Stony desert to Clifton Hills on Warburton Creek. Shortly before reaching the village of Warburton track bends to the west in the Simpson Desert from. From Clifton Hills, the road goes in a wide arc to the east and then north to the impassable Goyder Lagoon and through the Strzelecki Desert. Almost at its easternmost point branches off to the south, the Walkers Crossing Road, a dirt road towards Innamincka, from. Pandie Pandie at the north end of the Goyder Lagoon is the last municipality in the territory of South Australia. Approx. 10 km after crossing the border into Queensland the Birdsville Track ends in Birdsville.

The highest point in the course of the highway is 51 m, the lowest at 27 m.

The Back of Beyond

The production in 1954 made ​​The Back of Beyond the Australian documentary pioneer John Heyer describes using the by now legendary self- Post driver Tom Kruse ( 1914-2011 ) the Birdsville Track in an impressive way. A historical re-enactment of the Australian television in 2001 with the surviving Kruse, Last Mail from Birdsville titled was also a great success.