Place Comment: Coongie

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

ThreadID: 140875 Views:6516 Replies:5 FollowUps:2

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Malkumba - Coongie Lakes National Park

Malkumba-Coongie Lakes National Park is one of the most spectacular of South Australia's natural attractions. The park is a pristine water world made up of channels, waterholes, lakes,

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

Thursday, Dec 17, 2020 at 16:52

Hi Candace,

My Hema Australia Road and 4WD Atlas lists a “Kudriemitchie Outstation (abandoned)” in the approximate area you have mentioned. Perhaps this is what you are looking at. There is also a Kudriemitchie Waterhole, but no “Coongie”.

Macca.

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

Thursday, Dec 17, 2020 at 17:04

Good question....

Coongie

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

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Follow Up By: Member - McLaren3030 - Thursday, Dec 17, 2020 at 17:16

Thursday, Dec 17, 2020 at 17:16

Yes, just zoomed in on Hema and found this.

Macca.

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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.

Tony

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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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Reply By: Member - DOZER - Wednesday, Dec 23, 2020 at 20:51

Wednesday, Dec 23, 2020 at 20:51

I looked for this track as i was coming from Birdsville along the developement road to Congee lakes, but was confronted by the keep out signs, so i went the long way round through innamincka. Looking at the turns left and right, seems i made a good decision.

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Reply By: Jeff S7 - Tuesday, Jan 05, 2021 at 22:48

Tuesday, Jan 05, 2021 at 22:48

Hi Candance, I went out to the ruin several yrs ago and from memory if you travel south from Kudriemitchie not far there is track off to the right that takes you to cattle yards, go past the yards to a branch of the cooper to a xing, was a bit of a steep entry and water level was knee deep and very cold , I walked it first, a bit muddy but not too bad, the rest of the track was slow but no problem. Jeff

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