Birdsville Track was established during the 1880’s and was the main stock route between Marree in South Australia and Birdsville in
Queensland. Back then, the route had taken approximately a month to complete and because of the long and harsh environment, many cattle didn’t survive the trip. The track these days is passable with many conventional vehicles and many people like to undertake the journey to discover the route the old stockman used to take.
There are two routes which heads into Birdsville from the south and that is the Outside and the
Inside track. The
Inside Track saves considerable distance than the more commonly used Outside Track, however the route traverses through some treacherous soils of Goyder Lagoon and must be undertaken by 4WD at all times. The biggest threat is from the floodwaters of Goyder Lagoon and Cooper Creek -- if northern monsoonal rain is excessive, flooding from
Queensland's rivers will close the
Inside Track and the
Birdsville Track well into winter. Fortunately, this doesn't happen very often.
How to Use this Trek Note
Click the "Map" tab to see the route we've provided. Icons on the map are the POIs you'll need for navigation purposes. Be sure to check the list of Nearby
Places on each POI page.
If you'd like to save this information there are a couple of ways to go about it, depending on what you're actually after:-
- Ideal solution - download the ExplorOz Traveller App from the applicable store for your device -
either the Google PlayStore, the App Store, or the Windows Store (for Windows 10 devices only). The ExplorOz Traveller app is a complete mapping, navigation and tracking app and includes all the ExplorOz Trek routes ready for you to simply click and follow with auto-guidance available whether you are online, or offline. For more details, read our ExplorOz Traveller page. - You can print a paper copy of the text using the print icon button shown above, near the social media buttons. For the best output it is advised to open each tab/section to load all images and artwork. You will still need to click open each Place page (listed in Where to Stay, What to See) to print off all available information.
- If you have a Hema Navigator or use Mapping Software such as OziExplorer, or TrackRanger AND you are an ExplorOz Member, then you can click the Download Trek button at the top of this page to obtain the raw data files (eg. GPX) for this Trek.
- If you're not a Member, or you'd like to batch download the entire Treks database you can obtain this by buying a product called EOTreks Route Files from our online shop.
