AUSTRALIA
ROADTRIP

South Australia
Western Australia
& Northern Territory

Start Location Victoria

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SIMPSON DESERT GREEN & RED

Flight Into the Simpson Desert

The Simpson Desert is Australia's fourth-largest desert and perhaps the most notorious. The Simpson is known for its parallel sand dunes, stretching for hundreds of kilometres. The desert is largely red sandy plains between the dunes and uninhabited, bordering the states of South Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory in Central Australia.

Area: 176,500 km2 (68,100 sq mi)

Waddi Trees

Waddi Trees (Acacia peuce) grow in just a few places in Australia. They are a rare and ancient species, with spiky, needle-like leaves and thick bark. The trees grow only on dry, barren ground on the fringe of the Simpson Desert in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Waddi trees grow to about 9 metres and may live for as long as 1,000 years. They have yellow wood with a bright red core. The wood of the tree is of extreme hardness.

Driving the Simpson

A vehicle crossing of the parallel dunes will take four days at a minimum. West to east is usually the easier direction. Vehicles consume huge amounts of fuel to drive over the dunes, and becoming bogged in the loose sand is frequent. The Simpson Desert National Park is closed annually over the summer months, any vehicle breakdown and subsequent stranding while attempting a summer crossing will likely lead to life threating situations from the constant extreme heat. Temperatures exceed fifty degrees daily.

The Madigan Line

The best route to follow is the Madigan Line. The route is not a track; it's more a series of GPS waypoints and involves traversing more than 1,300 sand dunes.

The French Line

The French Line is a track of some sort and is the shortest route across the Simpson Desert and may be the most demanding to traverse. There are no trees for shade. The French Line from Dalhousie Springs to Birdsville is a distance of 440 km, requiring a minimum of three days to complete. The average speed on the French Line for a 4WD vehicle is 32 km/hr. Often down to 15 km/hr. In the event of any vehicle breakdown, rescue may not be timely or practical in life threatening situations.

Flying Into the Simpson Desert

Early morning or pre-sunset scenic flights may be booked from the Birdsville Hotel. Upon arrival for the pre-flight briefing, we were informed that our sunset flight would include four people, including two pilots. We were asked if we had flown in a light aircraft before. I explained that my last flight was in a Tiger Moth a few years ago in Mackay, Queensland. On that occasion, we didn't make it back to the airport and were forced to land on the ring road due to engine failure. The pilots reassured me that Tiger Moths are sturdy planes, just like the one we were flying in today. I was hoping we wouldn't have to make a forced landing and be stranded and lost in the Simpson Desert overnight. Those things don't happen twice, right? Anyway, it was time to go. The two pilots and the two of us passengers strapped ourselves in and took off.

The thirty minute flight was very interesting and incident-free.

Feral camels are common in Australian deserts, along with goannas, foxes, and dingoes. The towns of Birdsville, Queensland and Oodnadatta in South Australia are the towns nearest to the edge of the Simpson Desert.

Traveldriven

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