My wife and I just got back on Saturday from our two week little trip visiting the
Corner Country in a Holden Monterey and a camper trailer.
We left
Brisbane on the 7th, spent three days to get to
Birdsville via Haddon’s Corner. Spent Thursday tripping out to Poepell's Corner and back, and then two days through
Cordillo Downs to
Innamincka.
We spent a couple of days around there to look at Coongee Lakes, Burke’s
Grave,
the Dig Tree etc, then down the
Bore Track to Cameron’s Corner, and spent that night at
Tibooburra.
Travelled through
Bourke and
Walgett to stay at a friend’s
farm near Rowena, then back to
Brisbane.
Birdsville to Poepell's Corner and back was a 12 hour trip (including digging ourselves off two dunes) with only half an hour at the corner, and took 83 litres of fuel.
For what our
views are worth, the
Corner Country is worth looking at. Harsh, dry, dusty, rough and daunting, but it certainly has its own beauty.
Wildlife was rare, except for birds. A few roo's, emus, two dingoes in the Simpson, and a couple of lizards was pretty much it. Plenty of roo road kill in
places indicates no great shortage of life, but it must stay hidden during the days.
All up, no mechanical problems, one flat tyre just before
Tibooburra, and plenty of dust in the vehicle and trailer.
The dearest unleaded fuel was around $1:69 from
Birdsville through to
Tibooburra, and diesel was around 30 to 35 cents dearer.
Hints for those who want to go there for the first time:
As milk is often sold frozen in the cardboard cartons, take a plastic bottle to decant it into, as this will help prevent leakage from being bounced around in the soft carton.
Not all the
places have bread at all times.
If you go to
Innamincka, the public amenity block has hot showers that take $2:00 coins.
Don’t expect to
camp on grass, the dirt starts within two metres from water courses.
Have good footwear, the spiky stuff can go through 15mm thick soft shoes.
Expect lots of dust, both driving, and when camped.
The white roads have big corrugations rocks and dust, the red roads have rocks and dust, but less corrugations, brownish coloured roads are the better ones but still have rocks and dust, and the gibber roads have rocks, dust, more rocks and stones.
The lamb and mushroom pies at
Innamincka Hotel are made in a dessert bowl so don’t be put out by the price, and tastes damn fine.
Some fish in Coopers Creek can be caught on bacon scraps.
Keep in mind that these are relatively remote areas, we went some days with no other traffic on the roads/tracks, and some days with only 2 to 3 other vehicles seen.
If anyone wants to start a
rock collection, the
Corner Country is a fine place to start.
Cheers
Ian and Judi