Colson Track is a remote dirt track in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

running between Numery Station in

Hale, Northern Territory __NOTOC__ Hale is a locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located about south of the territory capital of Darwin. The locality’s boundaries and name were gazetted on 3 April 2007. It is named after the Hale River which is in turn ...

, and the

Simpson Desert The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth-largest Deserts of Australia, Australian desert, with an area of . The desert ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. It is named in honour of

Ted Colson Edmund Albert "Ted" Colson (3 June 1881 – 27 February 1950), bushman, pastoralist and pioneer was born in South Australia near Quorn at the southern end of the Flinders Ranges. He achieved recognition as the first person of European descen ...

, the first person of European descent to make a successful crossing of the Simpson Desert on foot.

Description

The northern terminus is marked by a sign near the boundary of Numery Station, and the southern terminus of the track is at Lynnies Junction, where it meets with the WAA Line (just east of Rig Road) in the western Simpson Desert. The length of the track is 336 km, much of which is in swales between sand dunes. The track is defined only by wheel ruts, but it may disappear with washouts and long grass making navigation difficult. The surface is mostly red sand and may be corrugated. The track should be negotiated by four-wheel drive high clearance vehicles only, and a permit to cross Aboriginal land is required. An additional permit is required for travel across the Simpson Desert.

References

{{Road infrastructure in Northern Territory Roads in South Australia Australian outback tracks Far North (South Australia)