Connie Sue and north to Kimberley

Update on Flinders roads 6pm Monday.

Quorn to Hawker is open with care and speed restrictions
Orroroo to Hawker is closed for weeks
Hawker to Wilpena is closed
Hawker to Leigh Creek is open with care and speed restrictions.

Access to Parachilna and Blinman from Hawker/Leigh Creek road OK to 4x4.

Cheers

HI Willem
Thanks for advice... BUT... Smiles... we got in due to comms failure in park staff. Arrived on 25th told all areas were open. So when we saw the road closed signs we ignored them - figured that the road staff had yet to collect them. Drove over some pretty interesting sections of road. Heaps of silt; long strectches of wet soft silt; 50-100cm washouts; much of Brachina road seriously rearranged - rock crawling the order of the day followed by good stretches above the water line. Good water - beautiful water- but rapidly returning to the normal water holes.
Camped there 4 days - left yesterday. Rangers found us and advised of the folly - allowed to stay 'since we were already in'. (At that point - the only park tourists outside Wilpena. Roads will be graded in the coming days/weeks.
Went out via Blinman Parachilna - all crossings have been graded.

Thanks for your comments further on in this thread too

best regards

Chris

Thanks Errol
Have just looked at my GPS which confirms the spider web of tracks in the area - and I know it will be worse on the ground. Fortunately for us we have lots of time on our side.

I'll let you know more in a month or so.

Best regards

Chris

Craig,

The Cocklebiddy-Rawlinna road is public access and permission need not be sought. Your info is out of date....sorry...:-D

Cheers

Willem

Thats news to me .. we do not have PAR's in this state as fare as I now (now JS) when we traveled that country as told by the locals the only road south was from Haig (not the wiskey)
Site Link

Thinks may have changed I'm still waiting for Michell to compleat the travel JOURNAL for us to read ...LOL..

Cool it worked :-)

Richard

I can't remember where I got my info from but have travelled the road past Arubirry Stn. Its graded up to the station and after that it deteriorates as one drives to Rawlinna. There were no signs to the contrary that the road was private.

Can check up when I get home some time this week.

Rawlinna to Cocklebiddy is public access - the info on Hema maps is wrong. We phoned up Arubiddy and asked them - they said public access.

But Craig is also correct - he was talking about the Neale Junction to Warburton section of the Connie Sue. Theres a section tehre that you get permission via the DIA website, from memory. But I doubt that too many people would bother.

We've travelled these roads over the past 2 years. I wouldn't be doing them in Feb/March - too hot for me. The Cocklebiddy Rawlinna road can be a maze, but you'll end up in the right place eventually. The Connie Sue, north of Neale junction was bady corrugated in 2005.

Yes it's been a few years since I passed through Rawlinna so more than likely access conditions have changed. From the Belgair station end it was definately signposted private access & after speaking with the owners he explained the route through his property. Their main issue was keeping people out when it rained to avoid track damage.
Cheers Craig...............

Thanks for a great insight into your thinking in the earlier discussion - seems like a good thing to do to drop in on 'Dave' at least to discover some of the history and personalities of the place as well.

Great to have time on your side to do it slowly - at last

Best regards

Chris

Thanks Nugget,

We'll go as far as we can and then wait if that's required - (not months of course)
Will let you know how things go
Best regards

Chris