What is the Birdsville Track?
The Birdsville Track is a remote outback road that runs about 520 kilometres from Marree in South Australia to Birdsville in southwest Queensland. It began as a stock route for droving cattle to the railhead.
From the 1880s, drovers moved cattle from properties in southwest Queensland and the Northern Territory along this route to Marree, where they were loaded onto trains bound for southern markets. Water from artesian bores made the journey possible.
The track crosses the Strzelecki and Tirari deserts and passes the edge of the Sturt Stony Desert, with gibber plains, sand dunes and dry channels. Few buildings stand along the way apart from homesteads and the Mungerannie Roadhouse.
Birdsville and the races
Birdsville is a tiny town near the edge of the Simpson Desert. Its historic Birdsville Hotel is a famous outback pub, and the town is a starting point for crossings of the Simpson Desert to Big Red, a large sand dune.
Each September, the Birdsville Races attract thousands of visitors to the town, many arriving by light aircraft or four-wheel-drive. The population of the town grows many times over for the weekend.
The track is unsealed and can become impassable after heavy rain. Travelers should check road reports and carry enough fuel, water and spare parts.
Did You Know?
Tom Kruse, an outback mailman, became famous for delivering mail along the Birdsville Track from the 1930s.