Kipatha Native Well

Thanks Greg You beauty

Cheers Teza

Sorry forgot to mention it is spelt Kilpattha NW on the geology map.

Here is screen shot from Hemas Simpson Desert 500 map showing the wells location in relation to tracks in the area.

Image Could Not Be Found

Cheers
Greg

Thanks Greg

It's all in the spelling isn' it . The well was mentioned in 4wd Action mag and I hadn't noticed it when travelling the Hay. I will be taking a tag a long through in August and thinking it will be another place of interest

Many thanks for your replies

Cheers Teza

Hi Tezza and Stephen
I don’t think the location Stephen is talking about matches the coordinates I provided. I of course have no idea if the 250K geology map from which I acquired the coords from are correct (they do have PD (Position Doubtful) next to them!).

Anyway if you were to follow Stephen directions you would not get to the location I gave as it is about 1.3km off any track I can see in Google Earth. I am guessing the potential well site given by Stephen is directly on the track as shown on the attached GE image. It is also marked as a bore on the Natmap 250K maps.

Its coordinates are roughly (Datum GDA94)

25° 43’ 21.7” S
137° 53’ 56.35”E

or

Zone 53
790879 mE
7151828 mN

Image Could Not Be Found



Cheers
Greg

Hi Stephen

Thanks for the photos and information. I can actually visualize the area now. We usually leave Poeppels and travel north up the inside track and then turn right to the old oil well site. The area described would be straight ahead of this turn with backtracking afterwards.

Cheers Teza

Hi Greg

Yep I see what you mean. Interesting. Could call for a little excursion. Don't know if that would be off road, off track or bushbashing. Definately trackless

Cheers Teza

Would avoid the "bushbashing" option - sounds a bit environmentally unfriendly:) I myself would walk in as you see a lot more that way.

Stephen may have some additional info that positivley identifies the site he describes as the well in question so you may not have to go "off road" in any event

Cheers
Greg

Hi Greg and Teza
I have just had a look at my waypoint file and here are the waypoint details for the actual site.

S25 43 22.6200 E137 53 56.9760


The only problem with GE is you do not know how up to date the image is. There are a number of ways that you can get there from Poeppel Corner, but if you are unsure of the area, follow my instructions and you will not get lost, and will not have to leave marked tracks.

From Poeppel Corner head back to the French Line and head east for the K1 Line. As you drive down the last dune and nearly on the salt lake surface, head north up the K1 Line. When you reach S25 51 14.2560 E137 58 21.7560 (Where most Simpson travellers turn right and is the start of the QAA Line and heads east for Birdsville) Head north on the well used shot line until you reach the old site of the Poeppel Corner No 1 Oil Well (S25 47 29.4720 E137 57 11.0520).

From the old well site it is only about 30 - 50 odd metre and you will come to this waypoint S25 47 30.3720 E137 57 08.1360 and turn hard left up this old shot line. At the 'T' junction with the old air strip, S25 48 07.2000 E137 55 30.5240, just head due north and you will arrive at the location, and yes it is marked on the 1:250,000 topo maps as "Bore"

When you arrive at the site, the old well site will be on your left hand side, just look for the old large cutting made by The CGD in 1963. From this site, there is a track that heads east to again meet up with the K1. Head further North for the Site of the Old Beachcomber Oil well site, or south and back to the QAA Line and Head for Birdsville

Feel free to ask any further questions.

And for the records, my waypoints are recorded in Degrees, Minutes and Seconds with WGS84, as required by one of Australia's major mapping companies, as I do freelance mapping for them.


Cheers

Stephen

Hi
Yes the coords you have provided match (close enough) the point I have shown as the "bore" along the track on the GE image.

I suppose the question is what maps or other evidence is available that shows this location as the being where the native well is suppose to be. The geology map I have was compiled in 1972, and as displayed above shows the location of the well about 1.7km south west of the bore (and as mentioned is marked PD). The old geology map doesnt show the bore. Guessing they probabaly plotted the well in the wrong spot but without any other info no certianty exists in my mind.

All good fun.

Cheers
Greg

Certainly your picture of the well site Stephen looks very much like the picture of it in Mark Shephards book, "The Simpson Desert" published in 1992. That book mentions the well a few times...
It even has a picture of your Wirly, though standing more upright..

Cheers

Hi Greg,
Not being a no all, but the information that you have is very wrong. Firstly the well was destroyed in 1963 and the completed geology map of 1972 have got there facts wrong. I have spent a very long time studying the Aboriginal wells of the Simpson, as documented by explorer David Lindsay. If you do not take my word for it check out a very good book on the Simpson by Mark Shephard, page 65. What I can tell you is that there are other native wells, located further west and south west, being Perlanna and Boolaburtinna. Kilpatha is a very special location, with a lot of history, native burial sites and more to discover for the trained eye.

The cold hearted facts are that a bulldozer put an end to a native well that had been there for many hundreds of years.

Another thing that I can tell you is that the locations of the other wells are very secretly guarded locations so as to stop any traveller from further destruction of these very special locations.

The Simpson is a very special place for those that have studied the history of it and is far more that just a drive across the worlds largest parallel dune system.

The section of the Simpson in the Northern Territory still offers the experienced desert traveller a chance to drive in very remote country, with no tracks what so ever to follow, and to experience the desert, just as the very first white person had to experience.

And yes I have been there and done that, but that is a very different story.


Cheers

Stephen

Hi
Relax - don’t care either way - if you read my last post you will see I was of the belief the geology map is wrong. Was just trying to help Tezza based on information I have at hand. Agree - the well was most likely where you say it was. Was just after some other actual evidence as to the wells location (but as mentioned don’t actually care). A simple request I would have thought. Will accept the information from anyone - even those who don’t have a high opinion of themselves:)
Cheers
Greg

Hi

Thank you all for the great information. We will stop at the well for o photo or two. Any idea why they would want to bulldoze it ?

Cheers Teza

Hi Tezza,

Shephard writes, "In 1962, the French Petroleum Company dug out the well site and bulldozed the surrounding area. They hoped to tap into a permanent water supply for their survey work, without having to return to Birdsville."

He also says, "As a result of damage to Perlanna and Kilpatha Wells, petroleum exploration companies have been given the exact location of all well sites and a buffer zone has been created around them to eliminate further interference."

Cheers
Alan

Hi
Relax - don’t care either way - if you read my last post you will see I was of the belief the geology map is wrong. Was just trying to help Tezza based on information I have at hand. Agree - the well was most likely where you say it was. Was just after some other actual evidence as to the wells location (but as mentioned don’t actually care). A simple request I would have thought. Will accept the information from anyone - even those who don’t have a high opinion of themselves:)
Cheers
Greg

Hi
Relax - don’t care either way - if you read my last post you will see I was of the belief the geology map is wrong. Was just trying to help Tezza based on information I have at hand. Agree - the well was most likely where you say it was. Was just after some other actual evidence as to the wells location (but as mentioned don’t actually care). A simple request I would have thought. Will accept the information from anyone - even those who don’t have a high opinion of themselves:)
Cheers
Greg

Thanks Alan

Good information.

Cheers
Greg

PS Sorry about double posting - need to change internet providers

Hi Teza
Nearly 50 years ago, there was not a lot of emphasis on Aboriginal history or their native wells. There was major oil exploration work being carried out in the Simpson, that lasted for a good many years. From the time the wells were spudded until the time that there reached the limit of finding any oil (many of the wells had good shows of oil, but because of the remoteness and the cost to get the oil out when oil was only cheap it was not a viable exercise in those days) there were up to 30 men working around the clock for very long periods of time.

Drilling required a lot of water for drilling activities, as well as to keep a camp for the men. When they were drilling Poeppel No 1, they hoped that they could tap into a reliable, high yielding water supply, thus saving many hundreds of kilometres of travel to bring water in from Birdsville.(Back in those days, the QAA Line was not made, the KI was also not in existence and they had to backtrack as far back as the Colson Track intersection then follow the Rig Road and out via the Warburton Crossing, then up to Birdsville.

The well was bulldozed and there was no water.

When you are out there, sit down and look to the west and think what it must have been like for Lindsay in January 1886 to travel this area.

Cheers

Stephen

oops I mean I was there "last" year...

Thanks

Forgot to look at my Westprint collection.

Cheers
Greg