Ceduna to Cocklebiddy

Michael,
Should have clarified that the Eyre Telegraph station and the Eyre Bird Observatory are one and the same. Built in the 1880's, abandoned and gutted in the 1920's, restored in the late 1970's as a bird observatory. Great place.
Gerry

I'm not sure what you mean is 100km ...

Ceduna to Cocklebiddy is more like 700 or 800 km.

Going East of Eyre Bird on the telegraph track is quite easy and there is an interesting only homestead in there - Burnabbie Station I think from memory. Some good camping spots in there too.

My experience that the beach drives are very challenging and require good preparation, and experience - knowledge of the tides at the time you are going is essential - it is particularly remote, and whilst there is some possibility of seeing folks at Twilight Cove, for instance, you are unlikely to see anyone.

And it is a lot further west than Cocklebiddy ...

Cheers
Andrew.

Hi Andrew,
Must be getting senile!!
I read that as "Caiguna to Cocklebiddy" LOL!!
Sorry!

Start all over again! I read an article last year (can't remember which mag) which basically gave the ok from Eucla along the old telegraph track to just about south of Madura. The original telegraph track from there thru to Eyre is not passable, as it is blown over with sand dunes.
The following I can confirm: From south of Madura, one can head north to the Madura Motel, then take a track westwards, just below the scarp, right through to Burnabbie Pass, where one then heads to the top of the scarp. Near the bottom of Burnabbie Pass is the track, due south, to Eyre Bird Observatory, about 10km of sand.
From the top of Burnabbie Pass, one must head north back to the highway (good unsealed track) to get to Cocklebiddy. The remnants of the telegraph track westwards from here to Caiguna are overgrown.
Alternatively, one can get on the beach at Eyre, and drive through to Twighlight Cove (where the scarp heads out to sea to become the cliffs), then head north back to Cocklebiddy from there. But the problem with this trek is at the western end of the beach towards Twighlight, where rocks prevent further beach passage, even at low tide, and one must take a track of about 3 or 4km through the dunes. This is not all that well defined at the beach, but once found is well defined.
The telegraph track above twighlight cove is again blown over by dunes, and does not resume as a driveable track westwards till one gets south of Caiguna.
This track, right through to the western end of the cliffs is quite a rewarding trek, and if one does not want to do the 90km beach drive to Israelite Bay, one can head north again at around Pt Culver and rejoin the highway east of Balladonia station. Either way, there is a good sheltered camping spot in the dunes at the western end of the cliffs.
Sorry to cause the confusion!!
There are lots of interesting tidbits along the way and some waypoints. Drop me an email on
gezza90 at a m n e t dot net dot au
if you want more info.
Gerry

I'd agree with most of that from May last year.

The track from Madura past Burbabbie Station to the jump up for Eyre Bird was not really that difficult except a few fallen trees, but even they are gone now for some reason ;-)

We took the beach from Eyre Bird. On the Western end of the beach, the track up and around the cliffs was very overgrown, but passable with scratches, and had some interesting middens and landscapes of sand tube thingies as well as heaps of sea eagles (non-technical terms) and wonderful vistas.

Twilight Cove was wonderful - next time we will explore around it a lot more, but the sand has blown out to sea more than 2km since the maps were made - it's the only time I have a GPS track to prove I drove 2 km out to sea.

Whilst the Telegraph Track is hard to find it is there, and driveable with scratches - but not a problem in the sense of dunes - it is just very overgrown and mainly the limestone/mallee interspersed with sandy sections. Finding the track up from the beach is not easy, and with a trailer on presented no options to turn and was too steep to reverse. On the first go, I headed up another track which goes a bit more inland and is equally as grown over - travelled about 10km before I could find somewhere to turn.

We really enjoyed that part of the trip to Israelite Bay too.

Only issues with camping in some spots was getting your pegs into the nullabor limestone.

As for the OP's question, there are also great camping spots over the first dunes on the beach in the Yalata lands that are regulated and for which permits are required on pain of allegedly $8,000 fines. I can highly recommend them - I think now the Head of the Bight can issue permits, which is a PIA if you are coming from the East.

Cheers
Andrew.

Thanks for all the feedback on this area. Maps are one thing but first hand knowledge tells the true story. In light of the above, I will be making changes to my intended route.

Regards

Hi Andrew,
I take it you managed to find the track from Twighlight Cove westwards to join the original telegraph track. It is viewable on Google Earth, but was under the impression that it was not passable.
Some of the tracks west of Burnabbie, which I traversed easily around 1970 were quite overgrown by the mid 90's, and while passable, caused damage to some of the convoy vehicles (broken snorkels, ripped canopies, etc).
The track from the beach up into the dunes near Twighlight was tricky to find, but once found was fine, albeit with a few scratches involved.
Must get out there again.....
cheers,
Gerry

Hi Gerry,

Yes, we did find the track up to the telegraph track on the top of the cliffs.

I don't think that part of the journey was that much worse than others although we were the first vehicles through the track on much of the journey for a l o n g time

We didn't have any canopies - one roof-top tent that went after my space case which required quite a bit of arborism and gardening to get through, and which survived without any damage - certainly less of a problem than the beach retrievals on the first day of beach driving.

Cheers
Andrew.

Which beach section, Andrew?
have done the Eyre-Twighlight beach run a couple of times, no problems, just tricky finding that turn up into the dunes at the eastern end. No probs coming from the western end, as the track is easy to find.
Have done the Pt Culver-Israelite Bay beach run about 3 times now. Two runs were in summer and the beach was firm and we could hit 90km/h, but one was early-October, and the sand was the softest I'd ever seen. In low range for half the distance, being worst on the eastern end. Must've used most of a tank on that run despite running about 12psi in the tyres! Ironically, the wet sand was softer than the dry sand further up the beach. Nearly lost the Mav near the cliffs when we got quite bogged at lowest tide, and the pressure was on to get it out before the tide turned. Towards the western end, the sand got firmer, but he seaweed got deeper, and at times were were waiting for the waves to wash out so we could get around large knobs of seaweed. Scary stuff! Was able to find on OziExplorer the track behind the dunes, and we found our way up to that to get off the beach.
Next time will use some info gleaned off Google Earth to see how much of the original telegraph track I can travel on below the Wylie Scarp, including Wattle Camp, which has eluded me so far.
Gerry

We were there in May Gerry.

The beach driving from Eyre Bird to the Western end of that beach was extremely soft sand (highish tide) and high sea-weed making for interesting driving up high on the beach.

Point Culver to Israelite Bay was very soft too - probably Low 4th to Low 2nd at times and running about 15 psi all around - one time one vehicle was let down to 10 psi for a recovery and then inflate a little after.

The wet sand was often areas with wet seaweed underneath and on the first day the others thought they knew better and would do 100m on the sand and be feeling confident and being snide about my better judgement. Then when their confidence was getting up whoa! in no time they were pulled up, dragged down and asking me to turn the rig and trailer around and come back and get them (entertaining really). Funny how they soon came into line (and learnt to recover each other after further stupidity) and on the other beach driving days they didn't get stranded!

Wattle Camp and Wylie Scarp were great, and Bulbunyah dunes magnificent.

Cheers
Andrew.

Andrew, the time we were out there when it was soft, we were on our own! Probably the first for the season, so if we had got stuck, we could have been there for weeks!
Did you manage to do much of the run along Wylie scarp?
Wattle camp was one of the maintenance camps on the old telegraph line, I assume coz it had water there and shade.
I take it you do tours. The run from Israelite around to Pt Malcom and beyond to Cape Arid is great, and the track north via Mt Ragged to Balladonia is excellent. There are a couple of old abandoned stations along the way, apart from Pine Hill. One has old stone buildings which been restored (Balbinya) and is quite interesting and a great spot to stay.
Anyway, sounds like we had better get out there again. Wouldn't be before next summer tho.
Gerry

Hi Gerry,

Yes, we took a Tagalong group of 6 in all - most started without beach driving experience, and without retrieval experience, and had lots to learn ;-)

We didn't run along the Wylie scarp - we went down it at the Eastern end - I think perhaps going down might be easier than going up ;-) and had a good look at the Bilbunyah Dunes.

We didn't stop much on the way, but did head out on Mt Ragged road to Balladonia and past Pine Hill.

If I had known about Balbinya Station being of that much interest we might have gone out there in preference to being raped and pillaged at Balladonia but I was wanting to keep the tour moving.

Cheers
Andrew who agrees there is so much to see and do out there.

Very good, the bird observatory is cheep.

GB