Madigan Line

Hi all,

Don't post here very much but I thought on this occasion I would just to see what falls out :-). A group of us are looking to cross theMadigan line in early September this year (Inclusive of geosurvey hill). Am currently doing the research, planning and preparations etc.

There will be three 4x4 at a minimum and I'm under no illusion this will be a challenging trip for the ill prepared . I'm will be purchasing this shortly (http://www.outbacktravellers.com.au/north-simpson-desert.html) as a guide but wondering what else others would suggest to assist with planning, permits, etc. and maybe sites to visit on the way. We will have hema, sat phone and eperbs etc so I'm more interested in the planning as preparation will be will in hand. Would also like to know anyone has a copy of madigans "Crossing the dead Centre" They may consider selling. Thanks in advance guys
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Reply By: vk1dx - Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 10:52

Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 10:52
There is an insert in the Outback Travellers guide that you should read. It shows the way around the Acacia Peuce conservation area at the western of the drive. We ignored it and it took a few "oops wrong way" errors to get past it.

Talk to the Central Land Council and Annandale Station about access and permits.

We did it solo and found it an easy drive. Lots of inundations right where you don't want them. But that's 4WD for you. We ended up doing a 40 Km cross country detour without incident. Easy with a compass and map. But I will say that we concentrated heavily on not going near any burnt bushes with some of those welcoming "stakes".

I believe that we ended up using 23 Lt/100 with a heavy 100 series (about 3.5t).

I once put together a mob for a north to south transit of the CSR. One thing I asked was for everyone to get a professional 4WD mechanical inspection. Only one car ended up without issues. All the others turned back and one even before the Tanami. And YES they thought their own DIY mechanical work was without error. I would recommend that you do the same. No more leads for us.

I won't ramble on about the usual tyres etc etc. You seems to have all that in hand.

Enjoy the drive and take a gold coin for the tea and scones at Old Andado.

Phil
AnswerID: 594605

Follow Up By: rare - Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 12:15

Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 12:15
Thanks Phil,

Yes I'm allowing 26 litre per 100 for my 100 series (She is heavy). I always get my mechanic to undertake a pre trip inspection for ne. He is a remote 4x4 enthusiast and services a lot of 4x4 including great divide tours so confident that will be done correctly. Thanks for the heads up re: Acacia Peuce conservation area,
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Follow Up By: vk1dx - Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 12:36

Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 12:36
Blokes always read the instructions --- Don't they!!!

We didn't see anyone between Old Andando and the QAA line. Not a soul.

Took two spares and didn't even have one flat - not even a slow leak. One shallow scratch/mark on the side of the right rear ST Maxxs but I think that extra lining in the side walls did it's job. I actually did it on the track from Mt Dare to Old Andando.

Phil

Don't forget to sign the books on the way.



Glorious country - Love it.



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Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 13:43

Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 13:43
Whatever you do, don't get tempted to go off track, say between Geosurveys and Geo Centre, it is very wild out there.
I would advise doing them seperately down and back from Madigan line, just line up the corridor, though you will likely find tracks off Madigan down to these (certainly is to the Centre, as we saw good tracks going north from there), may or may not be signed though.

We had to abandon out Geosurveys attempt from the Centre last May, having gone via the old shot lines and OSM from near Mirranponga Pongunna Lake (26km west of Peoppel Cnr) as the fuel use was horrendous !!

Read here about the old shot lines (or rather lack of them) . . .
Simmo Geo Centre May 3rd - 10th 2015 (epic . . . tiring, but epic)
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Follow Up By: vk1dx - Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 14:13

Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 14:13
I have to agree with Les. Unless you have 100% concentration on picking your line it is very easy to destroy tyres on the miriades of burnt stumps when you go cross country. Maybe we were lucky but it wasn't for lack of concentration. The track we had been following from Camp 2 suddenly stopped at what looked like a camping area and it looked like the group had camped and turned back. No tracks heading east from there. So we headed NE to the Colson Track and back on our planned route. I don't think that it was as dense and difficult as the areas surrounding the two GEO locations that Les mentioned.

Phil
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Reply By: Sigmund - Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 16:35

Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 16:35
rare, you can have my copy of Madigan.
$44, which is what I paid for it, plus postage.
AnswerID: 594631

Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 17:01

Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 17:01
Good on ya Sig, that book is Crossing the Dead Heart, yeah ?
Couldn't find the other name with a search (and couldn't find a copy either, new or 2nd hand).
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Follow Up By: Sigmund - Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 17:13

Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 17:13
Yeah Les.
Westprint will do a reprint this year actually.
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Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 17:14

Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 17:14
Awesome, will keep an eye out for that !!
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Follow Up By: rare - Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 18:44

Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 18:44
Thanks Sigmund yes Im happy to purchase you copy + postage. Im aware Westprint will be doing a rerun this year but Im not comfortable when. What Edition do you have? I,m not sure yet how to contact you privately to exchange baking and address details using this form but will look later.
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Follow Up By: Sigmund - Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 19:24

Friday, Jan 08, 2016 at 19:24
It's Corkwood Press, rev. ed. 1998.

Can't see how to contact you off-line.

Send me your mail address at rsser
At
westnet

DOT
com.au
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Reply By: Michael H9 - Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 10:29

Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 10:29
Pat Callinan took a virtually unmodified auto Amarok (35 mm lift and LT AT tyres), with no low range towing a camper trailer, along the Madigan line and cross country to Geosurvey Hill a few episodes ago. The trailer was pretty hefty, maybe 1.5 tonne from memory, could be wrong on that. They had to pull it over one dune but otherwise it surprised them with its performance. The 2 episodes would be worth a look as research.
AnswerID: 594658

Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 15:41

Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 15:41
I saw the first one, where he made the Geo Centre, but not Geosurveys Hill . . . he definitely got to the Hill ?
The start of the episode I was showed a route that would have been impossible for him, from up the Hay R Tk a bit, then due West, the way we went last May, no way did he do that towing.

If he went Madigan for sure, then he went an entirely different route than he started off intending to do.
He did say they were going to the Hil' too, but didn't see any reference to that at all, maybe episode 2 ??

All I can say is we did it 3 vehicles, most day across we managed just 50 - 60 km in 10 + hrs driving, it was horrendous terrain, with shot lines used back int he day (and still on OSM) totally non existent.

If he did Madigan to the Centre, (which I suspected due to the vision and direction he approached it in episode 1), then he would have had to go back to Madigan, west a bit, then down the the Hill.

We had originally aimed to go OSM route to Geosurveys, and followed the corridor tracks up north a bit, before heading west again (no tracks exist), and the dunes beat us.
We were using 35lt + / 100 easy in the 3.0 TDIs, god knows what the 105 was doing, but he started with 280lt.

We would have run out of fuel, so bailed back past the cientre, down the corridors to French Line (no easy feat !) then a cake run to Mt Dare with about 5 - 10lt fuel left each in the 3.0's and Cruiser with about 30 - 40lt.

An epic we will always remember, nad going back to get the Hill another time.
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Follow Up By: Michael H9 - Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 16:49

Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 16:49
I'm not sure Les, I see too many shows and they all do the same stuff. I only remember the Amarok specific bits because I'm interested in them. I do remember him saying the Amaroks were using a lot of fuel, in the mid to high 20's I think, and that they seemed to be doing a lot of it cross country off track. The car was also loaded with all the camera and production gear. Pat had his kids with him.
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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 18:17

Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 18:17
Hi Boys

Getting to the Geographical Centre is a walk in the park compared to pure cross country travel to get to Geosurveys Hill.

The are reasonable old shot lines to follow in the Centre where in places it is possible to be in high range fourth gear, compared to low range second going cross country.

Put it this way, it is just over 66 kilometres the crow fly's from the Colson Track to Geosurvey Hill and it took us two and a half days to cover that distance., where tracks in the centre area you can cover the same distance in a few hours.










The true Simpson that very few get to see.



Cheers




Stephen
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Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 18:29

Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 18:29
I read on a thread somewhere there were back up crew etc, Pat towed and not sure who carried their fuel.
We left BV with 205lt.

I would have to see his track logs to believe he tracked East - West across the middle as it was shown on his Hema map a the start of Ep.1, and it showed them heading on to Geosurveys H, can't recall if direct, but think it was shown as that.

Then is no way he could have towed it, simply no way.
We followed up north a bit in the corridor, turned roughly where the OSM route was shown, and nothing.
We hunted a way over each dune, often the first vehicle might have got over, half the time the second, but the third had no hope, they have to go over a different spot.
The dunes are big, soft under the crust, break up very easy, then you have the unbelievably shocking 'mongulated' terrain between them.

If Pat got to the centre and the hill, he would have gone right around via Madigan to each.
A resonably easy fairly distinct track down the the centre from Madigan, though we didn't go north more than about 5ks before heading west for the hill, got within 6 or 7 km, and had to bail.
We had no idea if the OSM route that continued to Colson would be more of the same, we had reason to believe it would be, so it was the safe option to get out without risk.

Can't wait to do that again, know the best way to do it now with less risk, would still like to do the route from Hale River cross Colson, and to the hill from the west, but we'll see if I have forgotten enough in a couple of years to try it again.

Heading west from top of Mirranponga Pongunna Lake, we took 5 days to get through, north, west, north, and west to the centre, all on the OSM route following (once) shot lines . . . then the foray up the top attempt to Geosurveys, and bail out back to FL.

Day 1 - 54.4km 13-3/4 hrs
Day 2 - 63.5km 12 hrs
Day 3 - 62.8km 13-1/3 hrs
Day 4 - 69.7km 11-3/4 hrs
Day 5 - 80.4km 11-1/2 hrs

So. Slow. Very. Tiring. :)
Can't wait to try again :D
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Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 18:34

Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 18:34
Stephen, sorry I missed your post before I finished mine !!

That looks similar in a lot of what we did, shot lines following corridors were pretty non existent for us too going East - West to the centre.

Would love to see the route you guys took, I am thinking that would be a good way in, west to east might be marginally easier, those east faces were crazy.

Do you have GPX files ?
I have my full set.
Wanna swap ??
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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 20:36

Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 20:36
Hi Les

On a paper map, parallel to Geosurveys Hill from the Colson Track, we just made a bee line for the hill. Three dunes in and very slow going, it would have been totally impossible to get 5 vehicles back to the Colson Track, the dunes just too steep and soft.

Over the next two and a half days it was getting bogged, fixing punctures, more bogs and more punctures. From Geosurvey Hill, is was more straight line crossing just to log a Degree Confluence...I must be totally mad....lol

From the Confluence point it was south,long and slow to the Centre

Send me an email and I gladly send you the track file.










In the end there was a real concern of using all the strings in the repair kit, as my tally was 17 punctures......the joy of being the lead vehicle......lol

In the end the bogs were no issues, as from the time I was bogged, we were moving on again with a few minutes, and we were expert sand snatchers by the end of the trip.

It did not matter how old the old centre shot lines were, the were just heaven to drive on after days of just slow picking the best line from one dune to the other. Most days we were averaging around 33 kilometres of travel, while our lowest was only 22 kilometres in the real deep mogal country.



Cheers



Stephen
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Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 22:02

Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 22:02
..
Ah, like the map here on the Trek note - Simpson Desert via Geosurveys Hill

This is the OSM route we were following from Mirranponga P Lake.

Well, we did the right thing turning back, hearing of your efforts going easterly form Colson !
We would have had no hope going west, probably out of fuel before we would have made even Colson, Hale R, or maybe The Twins (or thereabouts) if lucky.

Was thinking of going back to try that the other way, but really now feel down from Madigan is the only sensible way, we've had our big adventure last May trying what we did !!! :)

I can't message you, can you drop me an email figjam62 at gmail dot com ?
Will email back the files from our trip where we left FL to the last camp slightly north of FL (about 10ks east of Erabena).
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Follow Up By: maurice b - Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 23:55

Saturday, Jan 09, 2016 at 23:55
Im returning back to the Geocentre , Geosurveys Hill in June with one other vehicle then continuing on to camp 8 to finish the Madigan to the east .Im also planned to do a second north simpson trip in July when i return to Birdsville if my tyres and vehicle are still in order. Im interested in a new route from around Beachcomber well to the Geocentre . Im confident it wont be a problem to reach the Hill from the east considering we were only 6km from it in May 2015. I still had just under half my 190 aux tank when i reached Mt Dare and started with 270liters. The 6 and 4 cylinder was pretty close in fuel consumption on this trip.My odometer and gps odo read 802/814 kms at Mt Dare giving me an average of 4.3 km /per liter . 23l/100km including the easier drive on the Frenchline . As i dont have a passenger its would be a problem for my vehicle to carry extra fuel.
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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Sunday, Jan 10, 2016 at 13:29

Sunday, Jan 10, 2016 at 13:29
Hi Les and Maurice

Firstly Les, I have sent you off my tracks flies, so keep an eye out for them.

Very interesting Maurice. Did you keep a waypoint for Wilhem's Marker.

He was out there a few years trying to locate it, but had no success. I lives up in Peterborough and drops in every now and then at work to say g'day when he is passing through Clare.

Hopefully EO Member Paul from Peterborough will read this also and let him know that is is still out there.

We put our plaque at the exact coordinates of the Geo Centre, with is around 200 metres west of the tower.





Cheers



Stephen
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Follow Up By: Les - PK Ranger - Sunday, Jan 10, 2016 at 13:41

Sunday, Jan 10, 2016 at 13:41
Cheers Stephen, will send my files back from the regular email to you later today, got to send them from the programme to my email first.

Wilhelms marker stood out like . . . the proverbial :) . . . as we drove back retreating south back past the centre and out south the French Line.
Actually, we say it reflecting in the distance in our rearview mirrors when gong north aiming for a way to the hill, and as we turned eventually we drove by to check it out.

It is on my logs, will ensure I get a screen shot so you can locate it on my files.
I was logging on Mapout, which isn't elaborate in what it displays, but the files (gpx) can be put into another mapping system and you can find it and get co-ords.
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Follow Up By: maurice b - Sunday, Jan 10, 2016 at 14:51

Sunday, Jan 10, 2016 at 14:51
Hi Steve and all .Wilhems Plaque is located exactly 16.9 km in the same corridor north of the Geocentre at S25 12' 20 - E 137 00' 21 . There some very nice open valleys near here that we said would make a nice location for a service station centre . Cheers Mauriceb
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Follow Up By: maurice b - Sunday, Jan 10, 2016 at 15:00

Sunday, Jan 10, 2016 at 15:00
That was a Type error i couldnt edit should be 19.6km fro geocentre
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Follow Up By: maurice b - Wednesday, Jan 13, 2016 at 22:49

Wednesday, Jan 13, 2016 at 22:49
In regards to Steven L mentioning the search for the lost Plaque you can read Wilhems trip report of when he returns to the Geocentre to look for it in 2006http://www.kempen.id.au/a-hard-trek-into-the-desert-2006/
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Reply By: rare - Wednesday, Feb 10, 2016 at 12:26

Wednesday, Feb 10, 2016 at 12:26
This is becoming frustrating to organized due to conflicting information regarding permits. This is what Ive been told thus far by various sources but I'm unable to confirm all these.

1:camp 1, 2 and 3 off limits.
2: Cant head south from camp 8 to Geo Surveyor Hills (Off limits).
3:Can no longer head east from camp 16 (NQPS closed).

can anyone give some guidance on these. Appreciate your comments.
AnswerID: 596096

Follow Up By: Bob Y. - Qld - Wednesday, Feb 10, 2016 at 14:08

Wednesday, Feb 10, 2016 at 14:08
The Simpson N/P would be closed at moment for summer period.

To get the good oil, ring Don Rowlands, Ranger at Birdsville. Phone: 07 4656 3272. He would be able to tell you, one way or the other.

Can't help with your other 2 queries.

Bob

Seen it all, Done it all.
Can't remember most of it.

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