Strzelecki Track #2

Carmen Friend
Mar 15, 2018
2 min read

We left Montecollina early in the morning after watching a stunning sunrise, as it was going to be a long drive – we were hoping 5 hours tops! We had only heard a couple of trucks during the night but kept the UHF on 40 just in case. The road from Montecollina was surprisingly good, allowing us to travel at 80km/ph which the top speed on the road is.

We did come across a couple of sections in the road which had road works. One section we heard a call across the radio to the grader driver “can you park just in front of my truck as there are tourists coming and there is a python crossing the road and I don’t want them to splat him’! The python was massive!!

This road travels through dry creeks, sand dunes and what appears to be dry lakes. It really is a changing environment. Lots of oil and gas well signs can be seen along the road, but you cannot go in to see them. At Moomba, there is a viewing area where you look out over the desert at the process plant.

Exploration drilling began in Innamincka bore No.1 in 1959 in the Cooper Basin with traces of hydrocarbons being found. In 1963 the first traces of natural gas were found in Gidgealpa and by 1966 enough gas was available to supply to the market. By 1970 a 790 km pipeline was completed, and gas was a being sold in Adelaide. Oil was discovered in the same year. At Moomba, they separate the water and ethanol plus other minerals from the oil before it is pumped to the cities. Thousands of kilometers of pipe connect Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. SANTOS South Australia Northern Territory Oil Search is the owner of the Moomba gas and oil lines.

Historically SANTOS used to maintain the road from Moomba through to Innamincka. In recent years this responsibility was given back to the government and unfortunately it shows. From Moomba to Innamincka it turned into a very slow journey. Bull dust holes, corrugation and large stones had us travelling between 40-60 km/ph.

Needless to say, by the time we got to Innamincka, we were in desperate need of a cold beer and some lunch!! The Innamincka pub did not disappoint us on both accounts!! Steak sandwich with almost everything, not just any steak sandwich can I say but ‘the best steak sandwich’ with beautiful chips and a burger with chips were perfect! We were told we were the second set of tourists in the area for the year!

We camped along side the very dry Cooper Creek for the night in a donation camp. After doing the general checks on both the van and car, we were very happy with how both had travelled. The van towed well and came through the bull dust with ease.

Innamincka was discovered by Charles Sturt in 1845 during his attempt to reach the centre of the continent. He discovered and named the Cooper and Strzelecki Creeks with the Sturt Stony Desert being named in his honor.