current road conditions for Diamantina development road

Yes, thanks Bruce I saw that
... we will take it day by day and see what eventuates. Sometimes, just occassionally the weather people don't get it right, and.... If we get held up we will have plenty of food, water etc.
It happened to us once before on the road between Boulia and Winton so we have first hand knowledge of what a small amount of rain does to the soil and the roads.

Regards,

Heather

Hahaha very funny oldbaz!

I kept getting an error message when I tried to put the thread up so thought it must not have worked..just kept trying and look what happened. Hopefully someone who has more power than me on EO can delete the other threads for me.
Yes the trip is going well, although our plans to barra fish near Normanton for a week were dashed when we arrived at the campground gates to find a 'sorry campground full' sign up and were told by phone that it was booked out for the next couple of days! I didn't bother phoning ahead as we were told last time I tried to book that there was no need, and there was plenty of room. How things have changed in only three years!
John, being the (im)patient man he is decided he wasnt going to wait around, so we backtracked and only went an extra 1000 kms in the two days. Found a great little bush camp overnight though which almost made up for it..
Having the Navara serviced today and its warm and sunny in Mt Isa, shorts and T shirt weather (sorry!).

Thanks for the information on the campsite, if we manage to get through on that road we will keep it in mind.

Regards,

Heather

Thanks for that.

I guess we can always ask when we get to Quilpie and / or Thargomindah and see what we are told.
Do you know who advised your friends as to this?

Regards,

Heather

Heather
Drove Tibooburra-Noccundra middle May. Corrugations weren't that bad then but there was at least 100km of bulldust along that route with quite a few DEEP bull dust holes. Towed a van along the route. The oilfields are trucking Bore Pipes 24/7 with B doubles

Cheers

Spero

Thanks Spero,

will check that part of the road out when we get closer and make a decision as to which way we go into NSW..may have to detour quite a distance to get to Tibooburra instead.

Regards,

Heather

Rain is falling in Windorah at present (thursday morning) and I'm told by my gides up there that all unselaed roads south of there are closed, be careful of the Bedourie to Windorah road too, if it has rained overnight it will most likely be closed, I suggest you call Bedourie hotel or the Diamantina shire office in Bedourie to get the latest info. The current rain band should clear in a day or two, so I expect the roads that are closed will remain that way for a couple of days. The nice lake side camp o the Noccundra road now has road gang camped in it, bugger!
Vic Widman

Hi Vic,

thank you for the info. We are delayed in leaving Mt Isa until at least next Wed now...car needs parts and we are booked into have the work done on Tuesday so have to wait around.

Sounds like that is good if the rain has arrived there...all may be good again by then. Meanwhile we have come back to Cloncurry for the stockman's challenge...not to participate, to have a look.

Will check again before we leave as to weather and roads etc.

Regards,

Heather

Thank you David and Kerry,

We are delayed until next week now...Wednesday at the earliest. Looking forward to having a look down that way as we drove from Boulia to Winton last time we were there.
I love that country and the camping along the way...so much better than being in towns and parks I think.

Regards,

Heather

Thanks crd,

When I read your reply to my husband I am sure he will decide NOT to go to Tibooburra via Noccundra... words like 'badly corrugated', 'bulldust' and 'sharp stones' will be a real turn off! No point in wrecking our van to get there!Sounds as though its much worse than the oodnadatta track was when we travelled it a few weeks ago.

We will look at driving up from the south maybe as we want to stay in Mutawingi N Pk and White Cliffs, maybe Currawinya N pk too so can look at other routes as we get closer.

Still in Cloncurry and not leaving Mt Isa until Wed now so I will check current road and weather before we leave. There has been rain in Boulia and Windorah but hopefully in a few days it won't be too much of a worry for us.

Also thanks for the info re no diesel at the Corner..will carry extra with us to see there.

Thanks crd,

When I read your reply to my husband I am sure he will decide NOT to go to Tibooburra via Noccundra... words like 'badly corrugated', 'bulldust' and 'sharp stones' will be a real turn off! No point in wrecking our van to get there!Sounds as though its much worse than the oodnadatta track was when we travelled it a few weeks ago.

We will look at driving up from the south maybe as we want to stay in Mutawingi N Pk and White Cliffs, maybe Currawinya N pk too so can look at other routes as we get closer.

Still in Cloncurry and not leaving Mt Isa until Wed now so I will check current road and weather before we leave. There has been rain in Boulia and Windorah but hopefully in a few days it won't be too much of a worry for us.

Also thanks for the info re no diesel at the Corner..will carry extra with us to see there.

Heather,

I would call the Cameron Corner store to make sure of the "no diesel" info, as they may have it now or should have by the time you guys get there. It would have certainly been a trap if coming from Broken hill and turning off to the "corner" (as the turn off is before Tibooburra) as it would have meant a back track to Tibooburra of approx 140km's.

With regards to Mutawintji Nat Park, I would give the rangers a call (maybe NSW Nat Parks?) and find out what roads are open there, as a couple told us that they were going to go through to White Cliffs via the park but the roads were closed. This was over a week and a half ago now so the road crews may have been out there.

There are also road crews working on the Noccundra to Tibooburra road but I think it will take them a bit to do the whole road. I would ask again on this site in a week or two to see if anyone has been through. Surely by then a few more have been along that stretch of road and you can get the latest update.

Anyway whichever way you guys go I hope you have a good one and a safe one.

Cheers Crd

Again, many thanks for taking the time to reply Crd.

With the rain last Friday many of the roads we are to travel on are currently closed (or were yesterday when I checked) but will just keep looking online and phoning (as far as there is 3G signal) and asking questions further on as we travel.

Sometimes the places we didn't intend travelling through turn out to be some of the most memorable.
I am getting very sick of van parks and looking forward to getting out there now....only a couple of more days now hopefully.

Regards,

Heather