Winter camping in the SA outback
The cooler months of the year are the ideal time to head for waterholes, desert springs and unique towns in the South Australian outback.
Whether you’re carrying a dome tent in the family wagon or hauling a rugged, fully-equipped holiday home behind a chunky four-wheel-drive, there’s an outback campground to suit your needs.
Easy
Immersed in city life, it’s hard to believe an other-worldly town like Coober Pedy exists just a day’s drive away.
Australia produces 95 per cent of the world’s opals, and most of the white opal comes from Coober Pedy, 848km north of Adelaide on the sealed Stuart Highway.
The town sits among low hills in a barren moonscape surrounded by thousands of dirt mounds tossed up by mining operations.
With little shade, searingly hot summers and chilly winters, many of the residents live underground in dugouts, where the temperature remains in the low to mid 20s year-round.
It’s not just dwellings that are subterranean; you’ll also find churches, shops and hotel rooms dug into hillsides.
For a truly unique experience, pitch a tent underground at Riba’s Underground Camping and Caravan Park, 6km out of town. There are also caravan parks with above-ground campsites in town.
While you’re in the area, take a round trip to Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park, via the Stuart Highway and unsealed Kempe Road – or book a tour.
Located on the traditional land of the Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara people, the crumbling mesas of the Breakaways have spilt a rich palette of ochre colours onto the desert floor.
Not too hard
When explorer John McDouall Stuart pushed deep into the northern reaches of the state, he followed a series of freshwater springs that First Nations people have used for thousands of years.
Later, the Overland Telegraph line connecting Adelaide to Darwin, and the original alignment of the Ghan railway followed the same route.
A rough track emerged connecting railway towns and sidings along the way, and this became the Oodnadatta Track, named by local legend Adam Plate.
It’s since become a popular drive for travellers heading from Marree at the southern end of the track, to Marla on the Stuart Highway. When the road’s dry and in good condition it could be comfortably driven in a sturdy, high clearance two-wheel-drive car. But it doesn’t take much to damage the road surface, so an off-road vehicle is a better choice.
There are plenty of leftovers from the region’s transport and communications past, including iron rail bridges and the crumbling ruins of rail sidings and telegraph repeater stations.
There are formal campgrounds with facilities at Marree, William Creek, Oodnadatta and Marla, and a popular bush camp beside a waterhole near the massive Algebuckina Bridge, 57km south of Oodnadatta.
Sitting in a particularly bleak part of the desert, privately-owned Coward Springs Camping Ground is a classic oasis, right down to its date palms, wetland and outdoor spa.
A short drive away, spring water bubbles to the surface at Wabma Kadarbu Mound Springs Conservation Park.
When you reach Marla on the Stuart highway, it’s either north to the Northern Territory or south to Adelaide.
A little more challenging
The Strzelecki Track between Lyndhurst and Innamincka partly owes its existence to a cattle rustling caper. Henry Arthur “Harry” Readford roughly followed this alignment with about 1000 cattle he’d stolen in Queensland, before selling them at Blanchewater Station in South Australia.
His bold escapade, arrest in Sydney, court case in Queensland and subsequent acquittal had the unexpected result of drawing attention to this route for droving cattle to Adelaide markets.
Over time, droughts, economic downturns and drifting sands saw the stock route largely abandoned, but the discovery of oil and gas beneath the desert sands in the 1960s changed everything.
The Strzelecki Track is now a major road used for transporting heavy equipment to the vast oil and gas fields of the Cooper Basin.
It’s also one of the country’s most popular outback tourist roads. About 40 per cent of the 472km-long Strzelecki Track is sealed, and the remaining unsealed sections could easily be driven in a two-wheel-drive vehicle, in dry weather.
However, it’s a little more challenging when you venture beyond the tiny town of Innamincka and follow the rough, four-wheel-drive access tracks to waterside camping spots along magnificent Cooper Creek.
The 7km-long, 28m-deep Cullyamurra Waterhole east of Innamincka is flanked by mighty river red gums, which host a cacophony of rowdy parrots. Remarkably, this stretch of water has never been known to run dry, even in the most severe droughts.
There are also several pretty, well-shaded campgrounds a few kilometres to the west of Innamincka, including Minkie Waterhole and Ski Beach, and in the town common near the pub and store.
Note: At the time of writing, floodwaters from Queensland are pouring into northern South Australia and the Strzelecki Track is currently closed.
Hold on to your hat
The story goes that John “Goog” Denton had long wondered what lay in the vast wilderness that stretched beyond his pastoral property north of Ceduna.
So, starting in 1973, Goog and his family spent weekends bulldozing a track across hundreds of sand dunes. Three years later, they linked up with an abandoned track heading south from the Trans-Australian Railway line, and the job was done.
Access to Goog’s Track, as it’s known, is via unsealed Kalanbi Road, which leaves the Eyre Highway 5km north of Ceduna and extends 26km to the boundary of Yumbarra Conservation Park and the start of the track.
About 154km later, the track joins the railway line near Malbooma siding. From here, it’s a 162km drive on unsealed road to Glendambo on the Stuart Highway.
Most of Goog’s Track is within Yumbarra Conservation Park and Yellabinna Regional Reserve and Wilderness Protection Area.
A high ground clearance four-wheel-drive with low range – and reduced tyre pressure – is needed to ride the rollercoaster of more than 300 dunes. Parks SA prefer travellers to drive from south to north to avoid collisions with oncoming vehicles at dune crests. Attaching a sand flag to your vehicle will make it more visible.
This is a remote area with no mobile phone coverage, so many travellers carry a satellite phone and a UHF radio set on channel 18 – the chatter channel for caravanners and off-roaders.
There are two designated bush camping areas en route. Googs Lake Campground to the south has several campsites, a few tables and a toilet.
To the north, there are four campsites at Mount Finke Campground, but apart from a couple of tables there are no facilities – though the million-star view should make up for the lack of amenities.
Soaring a dizzying 270m above the desert sands, Mount Finke is the highest feature in the area and can be seen from many of the dune crests en route. Legend has it that some hikers get one bar on a mobile phone on the flanks of the mount.
For information on buying entry and camping permits for SA’s national and conservation parks, visit the National Parks and Wildlife Service website.
To check outback road conditions, visit the Department for Infrastructure and Transport website.
Happy camping.