Brisbane to Charleville...

The small departure lounge of Skytrans, at the Brisbane airport, is already almost full and it is only 6.30am. We are not due to takeoff for another hour. We thought we'd be early, but obviously our fellow travelers are just as keen as us.

Today is Saturday 2nd April, 2011 and we are off on a one day, air tour of Lake Eyre. But it has been a long time in the planning. We first heard about this tour, run by Graham and Deb Reid from TravelWest in Charleville, in April 2010, during our driving tour of western New South Wales. As fate would have it, we popped into an artist studio on the outskirts of Bourke and got chatting to owner/artist Jenny Greentree. Jenny had just done this tour and she was rapted about the whole experience. She had already started doing a few paintings based on what she had observed. The photos she showed us were spectacular and her paintings seemed to have captured something ethereal in the character of Lake Eyre.

In early 2010, our original plan had been to drive to Lake Eyre, but for a variety of reasons this trip had been truncated into the "Western New South Wales" tour to Broken Hill, Lightening Ridge and many of the other iconic towns of Australian folklore and history. You can read all about this tour at our blog called "In Search of Art in the Aussie Outback" (http://aussieoutbackart.blogspot.com/)

With no time to fit the Lake Eyre air tour into 2010, we contacted Graham and Deb as soon as we got back from Europe in November 2010 to make sure we could get on board, before we again hit the road to Europe in mid-May 2011.

So, after 9 email exchanges and the payment of what seemed like a considerable amount of money; although it must be said that we have decided that life is too short to worry too much about money, we find ourselves in the fast filling Skytrans departure lounge.

The plane is a Dash 8, a small, twin engined prop-jet with seating for 35 passengers. The seating configuration is 2 + 2 so we have one window seat and one isle seat. Jenelle has the window. We are in the exit row which is even better. In row 4 we are directly under the wing with a pretty good view apart from the propeller which is sightly forward of us.

We take off on time and climb into the cool clear morning over Brisbane and head west...


We are soon cruising past Toowoomba, unpacking our breakfast of yummy banana pancakes, yogurt, fresh fruit and coffee...


Graham, our guide, normally doesn't join the tour until Charleville where he and his wife Deb are based, however today he is with us from the start. As we zoom along above the patchwork world that is the Darling Downs, Graham gives us an introduction to the day's adventures that await...


Further out on the Downs the patchwork fields become sublime...


Slowly black soil cultivation gives way to red soil grazing the further west we fly...


Then into the Mugla country with trees as far as the eye can see...


As we come into land at Charleville we get a close up view of the Mulga trees which look for all the world like olive trees from up here...


Then as if from out of nowhere, in this expanse of mulga, we find the wide, regimented streets of Charleville...


We land at the incredibly historic Charleville Airport to refuel, pick up a few more passengers and to our total amazement (at this stage) a complete change of crew (2 pilots and stewardess)...

While the plane is refueled we bone up on the history of Charleville airport. It was from here at 5.30am on the 2nd November, 1922 that the very first QANTAS air mail service began. Qantas had been eking outing a living doing joy flights, but it was the commencement of air mail services and a few years later the introduction of scheduled passenger services that laid the solid foundation for the flying kangaroo. And as they say, "the rest is history"...


The airport has many other interesting claims to fame mostly associated with the pioneering years of aviation and air travel...

And there could be no history without some reference to that other icon of Australian aviation and outback survival than the "Flying Doctor". This monument commemorates 50 years of Flying Doctor service to Charleville...


A full tank of Av-gas, a new crew, and it's "all aboard"; next destination, Birdsville...

Charleville to Birdsville...

Our round trip today will cover about 4000km and we will spend the best part of 11 hours flying. Our ultimate goal is to see Lake Eyre but in the process we will fly by some other amazing regions. Regions we have heard a lot about during our life, but like many Australian we have never seen or visited.

Between Charleville which lies on the Warrego River and our next refueling stop, Birdsville which is on the banks of the Diamantina River, we will cruise over the Paroo River, Bulloo River and the giant Cooper Creek.

The patterns in the Mulga country created by pulling trees to feed cattle and sheep during the drought could have been made by aliens like the crop circles in the wheat fields of England...


Over the mighty Bulloo River near Quilpie...


West of Quilpie we traverse the narrow strip of opal fields that stretch from Lightening Ridge in the south to beyond Winton in the north. Here they are mining bolder opal in the open cut "Bull River"mine...


While we enjoy our morning tea of cakes and slice we arrive at what must be the most understated name ever given to a watercourse; Cooper Creek. Cooper Creek is a massive numbers of channels that flow from north to south draining a huge chunk of inland Queensland...

In really, really wet years the water that flows down the Cooper will flow south almost to NSW then turn hard left and flow almost due west past Innamincka which is just in South Australia, then on for about another 1000 kilometres through 3 deserts finally emptying into the eastern edge of Lake Eyre. Now as you can image there has to be a serious downpour of rain somewhere in Qld for water from the Cooper to reach Lake Eyre....




The past few seasons have been very good out on the Cooper. In fact late 2010 and early 2011 the Queensland section of the Cooper was heavily flooded. The flood plain is lush green.


As well as filling all the channels, swamps, billabongs, in really big flood years Cooper Creek overspills into Lake Yamma Yamma, Queensland's largest lake at nearly 90,000ha. The last time it was full was 1989. In 2011 it was filled again...


Just before we arrive at the north-south running border between Queensland and South Australia we see the Road to Innamincka streaking though the outback. This road provides the main access to the oil and gas fields of the lower Cooper Basin...


As we begin to fly along the east-west border between Queensland and South Australia we see on our side of the plane the top end of the Strzeleckie Desert. Not that it looks much like a desert at present after a few years of exceptionally good rainfall...


A river valley in the Strzeleckie Desert makes an almost surreal image...


Most of lakes, rivers and puddles we can see are filled with muddy water. But just over the SA border is the Blue Lake...


Blue because it is a salt water lake and is not muddy like the fresh water lakes that surround it...


As the ever changing landscapes slips by sometimes you would be excused for thinking that you are looking down on the moon not the earth...


The Diamantina River is marked by one thin line on the map. Today that line is 20 to 30km wide in places...

Some places the Diamantina is nothing short of an inland sea of muddy water slowly making its way to Lake Eyre...


As we prepare to land at Birdsville we can see that the town is just an island in a vast expanse of flood water. A few weeks ago there had been another 200mm of rainfall in just a few days across a large part of the northern Diamantina catchment topping up the already flooded river. Birdsville may be safe from flood but no one is going anywhere in or out of town by road for many weeks or even months....


We have a short pit stop in Birdsville to stretch our legs, while the plane takes on more fuel. Our cameras need a break as well. Jenelle is already using the her back up camera to save the batteries in her camera for the main event...

Birdsville to Lake Eyre...

As we take off from Birdsville, destination Lake Eyre, the sky is crystal clear and cobalt blue.

We are now heading south over the border into South Australia. We follow the Diamantina River as it skirts along the edge of the Strzeleckie Desert...


This year the harsh red desert hues are softened by the patch work of green vegetation, growing in the hollows and along the watercourses where the water has accumulated, and sprung to life...


Somewhere as we head south the Strzeleckie Desert becomes the Sturt Stoney Desert. We are coming to realize that this north western corner of South Australia is just one big desert. Sturt Stoney Desert is an expanse of rocky "gibber" plains stretching from horizon to horizon...


Perched on the edge of this Sturt Stoney Desert escarpment is the homestead for a property called "Clifton Downs". The east-west and north-south airstrips form a cross which marks the spot of the homestead. To the east and south beyond the homestead, the inhospitable Sturt Stoney Desert stretches into the distance...


From the photo above you can get an inkling of why the homestead is where it is. To the west of the homestead lays a huge flood plain called Goyder Lagoon...


Goyder Lagoon the end of the line for the Diamantina River. Goyder Lagoons main source of water comes from the Diamantina and Georgina River catchments in far western Queensland. Goyder Lagoon is a mass of channels that fan out across the flat plain...


In flood the channels merge into small inland sea...


When the flood waters recede the result will be a garden of Eden for nature and the graziers for many years to come. They had to suffer 10 years of drought before the good times returned; such is the lot of the graziers in the arid regions. As they say there is money in mud...


The water that makes it through Godyer Lagoon forms a new watercourse called the Warburton River. We follow the Warburton's path to the south-west towards its mouth at the top end of Lake Eyre. But before we can reach Lake Eyre we like the Warburton river need to traverse another desert; this time the Tirari Desert...


The Tirari is a classic sand dune type desert. This year though the valleys between the dunes are all filled with water. In the foreground of the photo above you can see the Warburton scything through the desert. The excitement is building; then in the distance, far out on the horizon in the top right hand corner of the photo is today's holy grail; Lake Eyre...

Now for the serious sightseeing...

Lake Eyre....

Finally after over 4 hours of flying, many delicious meals and two refueling stops, we skim out over Lake Eyre; Lake Eyre North to give it it's proper name...


The plane's path enters Lake Eyre above the mouth of the Warburton and flies down the Warburton Groove. In the top of photo above we can see the western shore of Lake Eyre stretching away into the distance; while in the bottom left hand corner is the flow of fresh muddy brown water down the Warburton Groove.


Lake Eyre is 144km long and 77km wide. At over 300km per hour and flying at under 300m altitude, we zoom around Lake Eyre like kids on Dodgem Cars at the show. All the time Graham keeps the facts and stories flowing like he has done all day...


Dalhunty Island named after John and Roma Dalhunty who spent several decades exploring and researching Lake Eyre. Roma wrote two books describing their adventures and work on and around Lake Eyre. We read her second book "The Rumbling Silence of Lake Eyre" that only heighten our resolve to do this trip...


The Hunt Peninsular and Jackboot Bay near where Sir Donald Campbell set the world land-speed record of 403.1 miles per hour (679.6 km per hour)in "Bluebird" in 17th July 1964...


The surface of the lake is 8,500 square kilometres. It is the 3rd largest salt lake in the world and is the 18th largest lake in the world. Its lowest point is 15.2m below sea level and it drains about 17% of the Australian continent.


Salt, salt, everywhere is salt...


And salty water; 7 times the concentration of sea water...

Across the whole Lake area there is little evidence of human activity. Here is a photo of a small Cessna plane that ditched in Lake Eyre a few years ago. Flying low over Lake Eyre is apparently a dangerous pastime, as you are below sea level; here in the bottom left corner of the photo is the evidence of that...


Lake Eyre may be dry most of the time, but it does have a Yacht club on its western shores. Although since a recent land claim it is now illegal ($10,000 fine) to sail on Lake Eyre...


The pilot cruises up and down, back and forth across the lake. The colours change in the blink of an eye...

Dry lake bed to rolling inland sea...


The salt encrusted mouth of a dry river....


Sand dunes meet salt dunes and river estuaries...


In some places the shore of the Lake blends into the flat landscape that extends beyond...


In other place the shores are formed by slowly eroding ancient cliffs that Dr. John Dalhunty found recording the filling of the Lake for millenia. His research showed Lake Eyre has a record of filling about every 500 years, 1974 was the last big filling. There have been 3 or 4 higher over the last 2000 years...


After about an hour of low slow flying over Lake Eyre it is just about time to start for home. We track up the eastern shore of Lake Eyre over the mouth of our old friend from earlier in the day, Cooper Creek...


Look close for any sign of flow out of the Cooper...


Despite all the rain than fell in the Cooper Creek catchment in Queensland this year, none of it is likely to make it into Lake Eyre...


As we prepare to leave Lake Eyre we get a good shot of the mouth of the Warburton River and the start of the Warburton Groove...

Here is a map of Lake Eyre designed by Graham and Deb from TravelWest to give us a better idea of what we are looking at...


So that it is eh! Sit back and relax; job done. Oh no, Graham doesn't let you off that easy, there is still much more to discover and learn; we haven't been to visit downtown Birdsville yet...