Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 13:06
I drove this section of the Binns track last August, here is what I found.
Plenty Hwy to near Derry Downs, road was wide gravel in good condition (depends on when the
grader went through of course) a single vehicle should easily find a few spots to
camp, try Galah
bore, it came up on my HEMA Navigator about halfway along this section, just keep
well back from the actual
bore and yards as the cattle come in to drink in the evening.
When we approached Derry downs a Binns track
sign pointed off to the left into a very rough low range 4Wd track which basically diverted you away from the station front yard, the 5 or so k diversion took us nearly an hour, it was rough and very slow going and tight. This came back onto the aforementioned good road just past Derry Downs and away we went again on an easy dirt road to the Sandover Hwy. Due to a fuel shortage at Gem Tree at the time we had to stop in at Ammaroo station to purchase fuel for some of the vehicles, this was not a problem with the local station. The road from Ammaroo to Murray downs was again a wide dirt road there were signs of mining activity along it, so it was in pretty good condition. However, at the time (August 2011) the scrub either side of almost its entire length had been burnt out in the past week, l expect there will be a lot of new growth now, but this could make finding a
camp along here, if needed, a bit difficult. When we reached the road to Hatches Creek it had a
road closed sign on it. This was despite the fact l had checked that it was open only a few days earlier. After speaking with National Parks and then the local Police via sat phone l was informed that the road was indeed open and that they had just failed to remove the
sign. So always
check is the motto. At the time the road through Hatches Creek to
Policeman's Waterhole had just been graded and was in good but dusty condition. This was a contrast to 2010 when this was a slow high range 4wd track. There are some nice individual
camp sites besides billabongs on this road but you can't beat
Policeman's waterhole, it is superb. Hope this helps, just bear in mind that these roads will change each year and unless someone who has driven it in the past month reports here, you need to take all advice carefully. If I'm allowed to say this, my new book, Vic Widman's Classic Outback Tracks covers the Davenport Ranges and the road to Murray Downs in detail.
Vic
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