Strzelecki Track is a mostly unsealed

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

track in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, linking Innamincka to Lyndhurst.

History

In 1870, the track was pioneered by stockman, drover and cattle thief Harry Readford. He stole 1,000 head of cattle from a remote cattle station in Queensland. He drove them down the track, and sold them at Blanchewater Station. He then fled to

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. Pastoralists then used the track as a

stock route A stock route, also known as travelling stock route (TSR), is an authorised thoroughfare for the walking of domestic livestock such as sheep or cattle from one location to another in Australia. The stock routes across the country are colloquial ...

in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After gas was discovered by Santos in the 1960s, it started carrying more traffic as a route to

Moomba Moomba may refer to: * Moomba Festival, a Labour Day festival in Melbourne, Australia *Moomba, South Australia, a town *Moomba (constituency) Moomba is a constituency of the National Assembly (Zambia), National Assembly of Zambia. It covers the ea ...

. Some sections were sealed.

Description

The track links Innamincka to Lyndhurst through the

Strzelecki Desert The Strzelecki Desert is located in the Far North Region of South Australia, South West Queensland and western New South Wales. It is positioned in the northeast of the Lake Eyre Basin, and north of the Flinders Ranges. Two other deserts occup ...

. It is mostly unsealed, but with a few short sealed sections to facilitate overtaking. It is passable to conventional vehicles during the dry season, although caution is required. The track is prone to flooding after heavy rains. At other times the surface can be corrugated, with loose stones and dust. The Strzelecki Track is linked with the

Birdsville Track The Birdsville Track is an outback road in Australia. The track runs between Birdsville in south-western Queensland and Marree, a small town in the north-eastern part of South Australia. It traverses three deserts along the route, the Strzel ...

via the Walkers Crossing Track. It is closed in summer and only traversable in dry weather. A shorter route is available via a public access road between

and Innamincka, making the distance .

Heritage listings

A number of isolated heritage-listed sites are located nearby to the Strzelecki Track: * Tinga Tingana Homestead Ruins * Gray's Tree *

Well and Whim, Coochilara Waterhole A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

Merty Merty Station Merty Merty (also known as Merty Merty Station) is both a pastoral lease that once operated as a cattle station in north east South Australia and a locality. In April 2013, the land occupying the appropriate extent of the pastoral lease was ga ...

Old Mulga Bore Merty Merty (also known as Merty Merty Station) is both a pastoral lease that once operated as a cattle station in north east South Australia and a locality. In April 2013, the land occupying the appropriate extent of the pastoral lease was ga ...

History

Description

Heritage listings

See also

References

External links

Further reading