Travelling further into the outback you’ll start to sense the feeling of remoteness which governs people’s lives and connects them with country and small communities.

Features

• Out here, bush children use to walk and cycle long distances to school, connected to the ever present natural environment, birds and wildlife. Now in their senior years they recall “the good old days”
• The River Red Gums of tranquil Wallam Creek by Bollon are home to a Koala population, both symbolic of Australia
• There is much to learn about the Mulga shrubs, native to the arid outback, when drought and carbon sequestration are considered, not to forget the bush tucker and tool making of our First People
• History surrounds the Warrego River in flood, songs of Slim Dusty, scoundrel Breaker Morant and bushranger Joseph Wells. Drovers passed through here with large cattle herds following a web of Stock Routes
• No town is quirkier than where the shady but controlling Queen of Eulo reigned. Where bomb shelters and monuments to trodden cockroaches were erected - believe us, there’s more
• You will pass through an opal, dinosaur and ancient mega-fauna region
• Discover Thargomindah (Pop 270), the last significant service centre for the outback Corner Country. Here are the fruits of community mateship, involvement in town governance and sustainability
• Move over futurists, “Thargo” developed hydropower and street lighting way back in 1893, courtesy of the Great Artesian Basin lying beneath

Accommodation

Comfortable country motel with ensuite rooms

Meals

Continental Breakfast to room

Tailgate M/Tea, A/Tea, Lunch

Evening dinner at motel restaurant

Travel

Driving: 485kms in 4 relaxed stages throughout the day

Walking: Roaming at travel breaks and features. 2 kms evening stroll along the Bulloo River Trail

Vast horizons, far reaching outback roads and pastoral legends await you as we head for the isolated outpost of Noccundra, then south to cross the border into New South Wales and the most remote town of Tibooburra.

Features

• When there were few railways, no vehicles, planes or telephone, Sidney Kidman began building 2 chains of cattle stations, eventually to stretch the length and breadth of Australia. We pass by “Naryilco” (1.9 million acres) and note he set up his first ration store in Tibooburra
• The Packer Group once owned “Nockatunga” (2.1 million acres) on which our lunch spot the heritage listed Noccundra Hotel sits, a lonely enterprise on the edge of the Strzelecki and Sturt Stony Deserts
• The ill-fated Burke & Wills Expedition (1860-1) passed through as did Ludwig Leichhardt and others who went searching for Ludwig, without success and perished here too
• You’ll pass through the border gates which double as the Dingo or Wild Dog Barrier Fence, stretching 5,291 kms across Australia, claimed as the longest man-made structure in the world
• Aboriginal for “Heap of Rocks”, Tibooburra (Pop 150) sits beside sacred outcrops of granite rocks 400-450 million years old. The town is essentially self governed and seems to prefer it that way, isolated from political power and interference
• Charles Sturt searched for an inland sea and 1000 miners arrived in search of gold
• In the 1930’s the Aboriginal population was shifted out, some tried to return
• Celebrated master artists Clifton Pugh and Russel Drysdale retreated to the town for periods of outback inspiration and mateship. Their morality challenging exhibits still adorn the local pub walls
• The thoughts and artworks of Russell Drysdale centred around our denial of natural images, compelling us to see what we wish to ignore - his world of arid, silent and lonely vista, endless perspectives and glittering stars. Welcome to Drysdale’s spirit of the outback

Accommodation

Comfortable country motel with ensuite rooms - 3 nights

Meals

• Cooked breakfast motel restaurant
• Tailgate M/Tea, A/Tea
• Counter lunch at isolated heritage hotel Noccundra
• Dinner at country hotel restaurant

Travel

• Driving:  369 kms in 3 relaxed stages during the day
• Walking: Roaming at travel breaks, features and serendipity moments

An informative and emotional day visiting the 1844 expedition trials of Charles Sturt, the amazing circumstances he faced at Depot Glen on Preservation Creek. Later, we enter the Sturt National Park to witness the impacts of pastoral activity on an arid landscape over 100 years

Features

• What does a 50yr old explorer do with 15 men, 7 horses, 200 sheep, 32 bullocks, a 22ft whaleboat with 2 sailors, caught for 6 months in 67C heat with dwindling water reserves? Keep searching for an inland sea?
• Today, you’ll climb to a huge cairn of rocks located on a hill called Mt Poole. Discover the historic significance of the cairn and how it came to be
• For his “energy, courage, prudence and conciliatory conduct with natives” Sturt was given the Royal Geographical Society Medal for the “most important geographical work of the decade”, discovering Australia’s interior
• Acknowledged with the naming of the Sturt’s Desert Pea, Sturt’s Desert Rose, Charles Sturt University, Sturt Stony Desert and Sturt National Park
• Production on a 1.2million acre station, shearing 65,000 sheep, ceased in 1972 with just 5% of its timber vegetation remaining. Regeneration now rests with National Park protection and nature itself. Scientists are engaged in saving the extinction of threatened desert species
• Water was stored in wells and excavated dams dug with shovels and wheelbarrows. Bullock wagons and camel trains brought supplies 220 miles (350 kms) overland from the Port of Wilcannia on the Darling River, returning with bales of wool for the markets. Afghan hawkers brought their wares
• A curious open air machinery museum and key buildings remain, evidence of more prosperous times

Accommodation

Comfortable country motel with ensuite rooms

Meals

• Cooked breakfast roadhouse restaurant
• Tailgate M/Tea, A/Tea
• Counter lunch at isolated heritage hotel
• Dinner at country hotel restaurant

Travel

• Driving:  220kms in 5 relaxed stages throughout the day
• Walking: Roaming at travel breaks and features. Optional additional 1 hr climb and descent of Mt Poole on a stony trail

A relaxed early morning walk in Dead Horse Gully for some birding or mindfulness; a visit to the National Park Display Centre and Old Courthouse Museum will precede a loop drive through back roads of the Sturt National Park and a return for sunset celebrations

Features

• An unusual picturesque landscape of rounded boulders and twisted bloodwood trees filled with birdlife. Tracks left by nocturnal creatures navigating their way across the red sand of Dead Horse Gully, are proof the desert does come alive at night
• Enjoy the display of native animals, a model of Sturt’s expedition on the move and the original survey "corner post" from the merged three state borders of New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland
• Peruse heritage items in the old courthouse, relics of pastoral, mining and European history in the Corner Country
• View the bird life, Kangaroos, Emus and differing plant species along the ephemeral creek lines crossing the gibber plains on the Jump-up Loop Road
• Study the Jump Ups, once part of an ancient range. Discover how weathering and polishing over millions of years has crafted today’s breakaway landscape of silcrete-capped mesas rising 150 metres above the colourful gibber plains

Accommodation

Comfortable country motel with ensuite rooms

Meals

Cooked breakfast at roadhouse restaurant

Tailgate M/Tea, A/Tea, Lunch

Dinner at country hotel restaurant

Travel

Driving:  150 kms enjoyed in 3 relaxed stages throughout the day

Walking: Roaming at travel breaks, features and serendipity moments

Today we start early with a toasted treat for a novel desert breakfast. We take a sandy back road through red dune country to the official Cameron Corner. After lunch we cross 100 or more sand ridges and travel the Strzelecki Desert tracks to the outpost of Innamincka.

Features

• Breakfast by Olive Downs Station one of the first in the region and now part of the Sturt National Park
• From red sand ridges to the white sands of Lake Pinaroo, normally dry, but carrying status as an international Ramsar Site for migrating birds
• Near here Charles Sturt had his last depot camp before being turned back by deserts on all fronts, retreating ill from his inland sea aspirations. Lacking drinking water and a ration of a few ounces of flour and 2 ounces of tea a week, the decision was inevitable. He was carried ill, on the back of a dray 1500kms or more back to Adelaide
• The only enterprise at the official corner is the corner store. Here you are thousands of kilometres from anywhere but actually just around the corner and it is possible to play a single round of golf in three different states. Australians can make light of anything, anywhere.
• Learn more of the original settler families to arrive and set up home here in just a two room caravan ( no home, no stock, no road over the dunes) to create a million acre generational organic beef property amid the desert sand ridges. The current owner was soon to be borne at the time. Nearest neighbour today is 100 kms away
• Arriving at Merty Merty on Strzelecki Creek, we relive the cattle duffing venture of Harry Redford stealing 1000 head of cattle from central Queensland, droving them down the Strzelecki to Mt Hopeless, their sale and fortunes made at Blanchewater station. The venture was unravelled by the presence of an insistent white bull
• You’ll pass by the multi billion dollar oil and gas fields (no public entry) of Moomba with its jet airport, thousands of fly in-fly out workers, 140 wells and tentacles of pipelines reaching out to southern capital cities
• Innamincka (Pop never more than 30) is a welcoming site and a very comfortable, isolated stop over for 3 days as we explore legendary Cooper Creek, the Burke and Wills Expedition story, then weather and seasons permitting, Coongie Lakes

Accommodation

A quality isolated hotel / motel with ensuite rooms - for 3 nights

Meals

Tailgate M/Tea, A/Tea,

Counter lunch at isolated outpost address

Dinner at country hotel restaurant

Travel

Driving:  447kms in 4 relaxed stages throughout the day

Walking: Relaxed roaming at travel breaks, features and serendipity moments

The Burke and Wills Expedition story is firmly etched in Australia’s history so today we visit the key sites and story telling which will bring realism to the 1861 events that took place along the reaches of the serene wilderness of Cooper Creek.

Features

• Learn of the specially created reserves, the commitments of all parties and interests enabling the continued preservation of this wild creek and how two rivers actually became a creek
• The Innamincka Station was a prized part of the Sidney Kidman holdings and the Rev John Flynn’s Australian Inland Mission opened a nursing home in town
• Cooper Creek, named by Charles Sturt, floods seasonally and has figured prominently in Innamincka’s history, having erased the pub and old Innamincka Station homestead
• Visit the famous “Dig Tree” and the delightful Cullyamurra Waterhole along the creek as the Burke and Wills story unfolds
• Visit the grave and memorial sites of Burke and Wills and where sole survivor John King was befriended by local Aborigines before his rescue
• Appreciate the surreal feeling of being there where the epic events in Australian exploration endeavour occurred and draw your own conclusions about the expedition and its conduct
• The Yandruwandha People who gave sanctuary to King, in 2015 were granted native title to 9.9 million acres of their tribal lands across the Innamincka, Strzelecki and Coongie Lakes reserves
• The creek provides one long birding corridor so be ready with binoculars

Accommodation

Comfortable hotel / motel with ensuite rooms

Meals

Tailgate M/Tea, A/Tea,

Breakfast, lunch and dinner at remote hotel restaurant

Travel

Driving:  Nominal local access throughout the day

Walking: Relaxed roaming at travel breaks and features

Not always possible given seasonal circumstances, but this day is dedicated to visiting Coongie Lakes, an internationally acclaimed Ramsar Wetlands Site.

Features

• A near continuous supply of water available to great numbers of waterbirds and waders
• Monsoonal flood water from the far northern tropics and Central Queensland finds its way down the extensive “Channel Country” to fill the lake complex
• In extreme flooding, virtually the whole of the NW corner of South Australia becomes one huge lake
• In 2002 one lake alone accommodated up to 70,000 birds including 30,000 Pink-eared Ducks
• Charles Sturt discovered the lakes and found them to be home to large numbers of Aborigines, a spiritual site rich in resources, especially following flood events
• A true wilderness experience awaits with contrast between wetlands and sand dunes
• The CSIRO considers Coongie Lakes to be of world heritage standard with some of the rarest waterfowl in the world
• Preservation of the lakes was a special mission of the Wilderness Society. Total reserve area is 285,000 acres
• Sidney Kidman added Coongie Station to his pastoral empire. Protection from cattle grazing is now an important objective
• On a perfect season you’ll pass through a changing vista of salt-bush plains, covered dunes and gum lined creeks to suddenly crest a dune and be greeted by a massive expanse of water almost impossible to comprehend in the desert

Accommodation

Comfortable hotel / motel with ensuite rooms

Meals

Tailgate M/Tea, A/Tea, Lunch

Breakfast, dinner at remote hotel restaurant

Travel

Driving:  212kms  in two stages throughout the day on a track varying in conditions

Walking: Relaxed roaming at travel breaks and features plus birding along the edge of the lakes and wetlands

Prepare for a memorable but longer 7 to 8 hr drive through the Sturt Stony desert from Innamincka to Birdsville, a truly outback experience where the rare passing of another car becomes a significant event

Features

• The journey takes you along the Cordillo Downs Road crossing braided water channels snaking across the stony gibber plains
• The country presents an exciting story in organic cattle production and natural regeneration of grasses for the cattle that roam freely
• Cordillo Downs (1.9 million acres) is one of a number of stations owned by the one family holding. It runs approx 7000 head of prime Poll Hereford Cattle
• Isolation and logistics play a big part in life on Cordillo with the homestead kitchen pantry said to be the size of a small supermarket
• Situated near the homestead is the heritage wool shearing shed the largest in Australia but no longer used for shearing. We will stop for your inspection
• At the turn of the century the shed had 120 shearing stands processing 85,000 sheep
• Afghan teams hauled stores up the Strezlecki Track and returned with the wool for export markets. The 1200 kms round trip took 2 months
• Camels brought a complete wool scour and several large steam engines up the track
• Imagine the difficulties for Aboriginal women shepherding the flocks and the menace of Dingoes, shearers strikes and unrest in such an isolated environment
• Imagine too, a shearer cycling up the stony track seeking seasonal employment
• So with a change of ownership came the conversion to cattle production and the establishment of an organic beef marketing company taking product to the world. A great story in natural farming sustainability
• The Cadelga ruins up the track were once occupied as a sheep station homestead but became an outstation of Cordillo as wool production faded
• Crossing the border into Queensland and heading west to Birdsville the time of day is near perfect for a spectacular blood red outback sunset

Accommodation

Comfortable remote hotel / motel with ensuite rooms - 2 nights

Meals

Tailgate M/Tea, A/Tea, Lunch

Breakfast, dinner at remote hotel restaurant

Travel

Driving:  418 kms at relaxed pace in 4 stages throughout the day

Walking: Roaming at travel breaks, features and serendipity moments

Today you’ll enjoy many of the features that have made Birdsville a desirable outback destination in Queensland.

Features

• You’ll be accommodated at the famous Birdsville Hotel
• The Wirrarri Visitors Centre is one of the finer tourism information centres in outback Australia with its focus on finer independent art and craft products
• You’ll visit a stand of Waddi Trees growing to 10 metres tall and up to 1000 years old. These are rare and ancient species which grow on dry barren land on the fringes of the Simpson Desert
• Waddi wood is extremely hard, claims of the damage it causes to axes and saws, almost impossible to drill and long lasting as fence posts. Pieces were used by Aboriginal people to transport fire over long distances
• Birdsville is home to the only operating geothermal power station in Australia. It draws from the Great Artesian Basin and services the equivalent of 25% of Birdsville’s power needs
• Birdsville stands on the banks of the Diamantina River which seasonally can carry heavy monsoonal rains from north Queensland toward Lake Eyre. The average flood discharge at Birdsville would fill an olympic swimming pool every one second
• Part of the Australian outback river-scape is the overflow to a “billabong”. Pelican Point is located on the Birdsville billabong, a good birding opportunity
• The annual Birdsville horse racing carnival attracts a crowd of over 7000. You’ll visit the famous race track
• Our day will close with a visit to Big Red sand ridge on the edge of the Simpson Desert This is a popular tourism attraction often used to test both vehicle and driver in a frenetic or manic “burn” up the dune slopes. Our plan is to walk up Big Red and find an isolated place to view the sun setting over the Simpson Desert, share a celebration drink and quietly savour all the senses of such an extraordinary place and space

Accommodation

Comfortable remote hotel / motel with ensuite rooms

Meals

Tailgate M/Tea, A/Tea

Remote hotel restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Travel

Driving: Nominal local access throughout the day

Walking: Relaxed roaming at features plus a short 20min climb up the Big Red desert sand ridge/dune

Today we travel across the unique Channel Country to the town of Windorah where the Thomson and outer Barcoo rivers flood into Cooper Creek and you immerse yourself in some Australian folklore oddities along the way.

Features

• Contemplate the future of the town Betoota, population zero, Australia’s smallest town with a single building, the Betoota Pub(1880), once a resting place for weary travellers until its eccentric Polish publican Ziegmund Remienko retired
• Imagine Ziegmund stranded on the legendary Birdsville Track for 18 weeks, his truck loaded with 8 ton of beer
• The temperature rises to 45C on Betoota Race Day but 300 outstation stalwarts truck in from 180 miles (300kms) away to dress up, glamorise, socialise and punt on the 6 race program, after which Betoota rests in peace, once again
• What must a local station owner have felt when he found his “ringer” workers were spending too much time at the local mud brick pub, so he purchased the establishment, removed the roof and let nature do the rest
• Spare a thought for the family of a nearby grave site. Their 2 infant children (1 and 2 yrs) who wandered away from home in 1895/1901 and perished from exposure in the bush
• The verses of Australia’s most celebrated bush poet Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson ring clear here in the Outer Barcoo with his tales of “The Bush Christening”, “Clancy of the Overflow” and “Waltzing Matilda”
• The country inspires reflective story telling around “The Fighting Parson”, drover Nat Buchanan, Tom Quilty and his mate RM Williams
• “Windorah” Aboriginal for “Big Fish” (Pop 80) evolved from an 1870 flood. Given the braided channels and billabongs, the Cooper can flood to 24 kms wide encouraging water bird populations to flourish and breed
• The local sand hills are claimed to be the reddest you’ll ever see
• Pioneering pastoral history dating back to the 1860’s surrounds the town with its first settlers John Costello, Patsy and Jerry Durack (who built the original Pub where we stay) and the Tullys
• Moving with the times the small town is now powered by a spacey looking solar farm

Accommodation

Comfortable country motel/hotel with ensuite rooms and cabins

Meals

Hotel restaurant breakfast,

Tailgate M/Tea, A/Tea, Lunch

Informal community BBQ dinner at remote hotel

Travel

Driving:  386 kms in 4 stages throughout the day

Walking: Relaxed roaming at travel breaks, features and serendipity moments

This morning you’ll travel way back in time to the dinosaur era on the edge of a struggling town, before heading to the "boulder opal capital" town of Quilpie.

Features

• Travel across the open downs, flood out and channel country where the land hungry pioneer Patrick Durack established a cattle station before his epic 3000 mile (4,828 kms) / 2.5 yrs overland droving mission with 7,250 head of cattle to the Kimberley. Later to become the subject of the best selling novel and subsequent TV Mini-series “Kings in Grass Castles”
• Eromanga (Pop 30) sits in an historic opal fossicking region on the edge of a long gone ancient Eromanga inland sea. Now it is fast becoming the centre of dinosaur and palaeontology interest in Australia with the rediscovery of our largest dinosaur, a titanosaur species
• Nearby are 70 internationally significant dinosaur and mega fauna sites. We visit the acclaimed Centre of Excellence in this field for a 1 hour insight into the collection, processing, recording and conservation mission in play
• Step into the laboratory and collection room, touch a 95 million yr old dinosaur bone and meet “Cooper” one of the top ten largest creatures in the world. A prehistoric discovery conveyed in modern times
• Travel then on back roads to your overnight accommodation in Quilpie and as time permits remaining afternoon enjoyment of local town and surrounding features.

Accommodation

Country motel with ensuite facilities

Meals

Continental breakfast to room

Tailgate M/Tea, A/Tea

Counter lunch at remote heritage hotel

Motel BBQ or Buffet style meal

Travel

Driving: 313 kms in 2 stages throughout the day

Walking: Relaxed roaming at travel breaks and features

Today we start returning from the outback with insights into tiny villages and larger service centres, then a tour celebration night in Roma

Features

• We depart Quilpie, located on the Bulloo River along which we strolled in an earlier evening of the tour, at Thargomindah. The river terminates in remote wetlands east of the village of Tibooburra, also a familiar memory from your travels
• The town is home to exquisite boulder opals, the most valuable in the world and there is an opal alter to view at the local church
• All that remains in “Cheepie” is a private residence for one, while at Cooladdi in earlier times there was a bustling rail head and the original owner of the local store Bob Fox so renowned for his enthusiastic generosity, service and hospitality that the town became known as the Foxtrap
• Charleville a substantial service town, offers a number of special features for this tour. We visit a Bilby breeding Centre for an up close and personal insight into the program
• Then it is onto the Charleville base of the Royal Flying Doctor Service for some interactive awareness of their wonderful services to people of the bush. So welcomed and supported in the bush, at every pub we visit and major local events
• Mitchell named after the feisty explorer / surveyor who fought the last pistol duel in Australia, is known for its mineralised artesian water. Lesser known are the tales of Frank Forde our shortest serving Prime Minister for 7 days and the bushranger exploits of the Kenniff Brothers
• Roma, once promoted as the cradle of the oil and gas industry with the first natural gas strike in 1900, is now the site of Australia’s largest cattle sales yards handling up to 12,000 head a day
• The old Roma Courthouse was the scene of Harry Redford’s trial, an astonishing event. You’ll recall our story telling earlier down by Cameron Corner and the Strzelecki Track where Redford’s amazing cattle duffing venture passed through
• Note the unusual Bottle Trees lining the streets, a species endemic to Queensland. We’ll visit the largest of them all with a profound girth of 8.9 metres. But don’t be fooled, they are not an empty or full water bottle

Accommodation

Quality regional motel with ensuite rooms

Meals

Motel buffet breakfast

Tail gate M/Tea, A/Tea

Country cafe alfresco lunch

Quality motel restaurant dinner

Travel

Driving:  540 kms in 3 relaxed stages throughout the day

Walking: Relaxed roaming at travel breaks, features and serendipity moments

Today we return along the Warrego Highway retracing our path to Brisbane with comfort stops along the way.

Features

Time to reflect on a fascinating journey into an area of Australia most city folk have never heard of and sadly will never experience. A journey good for the soul, of vastness, isolation, to witness bird and wildlife in natural habitats, the fateful endeavours of explorers, outback characters and “salt of the earth” people.

We will keep moving along as the day unfolds in the hope of getting all guests to their departure point at a reasonable hour, early evening.

Accommodation

End of tour accommodation pre-arranged with tour guests - not included in tour

Meals

Quality motel restaurant breakfast

Tailgate or cafe M/Tea, A/Tea

Quality alfresco cottage lunch

Travel

Driving:  477 kms in 4 stages to complete the tour

Walking: Relaxed roaming at travel breaks and features