Place Comment: Coongie

Submitted: Thursday, Dec 17, 2020 at 14:24

ThreadID: 140875 Views:7558 Replies:5 FollowUps:2

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Candace S.

Has anyone actually been here (Coongie, SA)? :)

This is not Coongie Lake, or the usual camping/parking areas for it. This site is on the other side of Cooper Creek from all of that.

If you zoom in on satellite imagery (such as Google Earth), you can see a structure and parking area where several tracks meet in this area. Look at S 27.180187, E 140.149921

The EO map shows a track from Kudriemitchie Outstation that starts south, curves west to follow the creek, then crosses the creek and heads north to this place (Coongie).

I checked out the first few km's of that track on Google Earth. Mostly to see the creek crossing. In the latest imagery (from March 2010), the whole area is flooded. :) But the crossing is visible in the 2006 imagery. I wonder how often that crossing is used?!

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Reply By: Member - McLaren3030 - Thursday, Dec 17, 2020 at 16:52

Reply By: Peter_n_Margaret - Thursday, Dec 17, 2020 at 17:04

Reply By: Member - Boobook - Friday, Dec 18, 2020 at 07:16

Friday, Dec 18, 2020 at 07:16

Candice, I look forward to your posts, I think you know Australia better than 99.9% of Australians.

The road west at Kudriemitchie Outstation is a well formed dirt road, 60 - 80 kmph. It is controlled by Santos and is quite busy with trucks and company 4wds. There is a big sign as you turn onto the road saying 'no entry for private vehicles'. I got written permission to use the road and that crossing on Cooper Creek was a typical dry, solid , elevated sand crossing dip over a green damp area about 4km west of the turnoff. Good enough to do say 40 kmph across. The security guard told me that it is usually dry but will flood for long periods after wet times. A sand flag is a must, or you will get stopped and probably kicked out.

If we are at the same spot, the track to the North runs to the structure that I think you are talking about. I haven't been up there but once you cross the Cooper, the track should be fine. I don't think the Santos vehicles would go up there frequently, and I don't know who owns/controls that. It is in the National Reserve but I don't know how mining / public asscees rights work there.

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Follow Up By: Candace S. - Saturday, Dec 19, 2020 at 12:26

Saturday, Dec 19, 2020 at 12:26

Thanks for the compliment! :)

And thanks for the info about the track. Yes, we're talking about the same track.

I noticed a lot of roads and tracks on the satellite imagery of this general area. Particularly south of Coongie Lake. I presumed many or most are associated with exploration/exploitation of gas, etc. I certainly saw plenty of vehicles and signs when I was out there in 2018.

If they are accessible to the public, some of those tracks lead to interesting places. For example, starting from the coordinates I posted earlier, you can see a track that goes NW, then north, then east, and eventually south. Skirting around Coongie and its neighboring lakes.

Alas, I don't think they're the sort of "gazetted tracks" hire companies want people to stay on. ;)

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