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Home > Travelogues > 2017 Travelogues Index > Sturt National Park (west side)

Sturt National Park

Sturt National Park

We start with the western side, and drive all the way to Cameron Corner, where three states meet. The drive was delightful, with from the start numerous kangaroos, mostly the large Red Kangaroos (as above), with the females being a little smaller and grey in colour. There were so many kangaroos, that it seemed like the numbers of sheep that would been seen on a sheep station.

Dead Horse Gully campground turnoff is one kilometre north of Tibooburra on the west side. Near the campground is Golden Gully former mine site. Here reconstructions and plaques explain mining processes.

The Sturt National Park is divided by the Warri Gate Road from Tibooburra, with different drives either side, entering or leaving twenty kilometres north of Tibooburra.

This first section is known as the Jump-up Loop Road, following dry creek lines to the Jump-up where the Grey Range is crossed. From here, it is a short drive east to return to the Tibooburra Warri Gate road, 45 kilometres north of Tibooburra. The alternative is to continue, as we did, by heading west along Middle Road.

All creeks are dry, and when rain does fall, creeks east of the Grey Range flow into Twelve Mile Creek which runs west to east to join the Bulloo overflow, where the Bulloo River in Queensland ends near the Queensland New South Wales border, and internal drainage system that ends here, which is a wetland only in times of floods, and becomes a haven for birdlife.

Similarly, to the west of the watershed formed by the Grey Range, drainage is via Fromes Creek into Fromes swamp, which in wet times can overflow on into the inland drainage of the Fort Grey Basin (Lake Pinaroo). The latter is usually dry, but once filled, can retain water for several years and becomes a bird haven. This was the furthest point that Sturt and his team took the boat, which they had hope to float in an inland sea. Instead they only encountered the sand dunes of the Simpson Desert.

Now back to the Jump-up and Middle Road drives.

Water was essential to run livestock in this very dry climate, and remains of earth tanks, wells and windmills are dotted through the park. Most were dry. Here we see new windmill with the blades removed. The dam is fenced so we were unable to see if there was water present. We are driving through what was once Mount King Station which covered an area of 268,840 acres (108,000 hectares). This station was the first to be resumed into the National Park. The buildings have been removed, with only a dam and a tank remaining. The site is signed.

The Grey Range comes into view as we approach the Jump-ups. The Grey Range is a relatively low range that extends from near Tibooburra to just west of Blackall in Queensland. It is a watershed between east and west. Formed 25 million years ago when silt filled the valleys, it formed a hard crust. Subsequently the surrounding land was eroded away over millions of years, leaving the flat hard crust and the breakaway hills of the range.

There is a short drive to a lookout at the top of the pass, and here we are looking to the road we have just travelled (above left) and the range which incorporates the high point of Mount King (above right).

At the top of the range, Olive Downs Campground is roomy and provides toilets, tank water, under cover picnic tables and free gas barbecues. There is an information board with posters about Sturt National Park, and the landforms, flora and fauna found here. Walk trails can be followed from this campground.

A little further along the jump up road, we reach Olive Downs shearers quarters on the right, and Olive Downs Homestead complex signed as Private on the left (below). A windmill without blades similar to one seen at the former Mount King station appears to be at the water source for the Homestead. There is a disused tennis court near the homestead (below right), from a time when remote people made they own entertainment.

Just after the shearers quarters, the loop road heads east to meet the Warri Gate – Tibooburra Road, and Middle Road commences heading west. This is signed as 4WD only, but in dry weather the well maintained road was suitable for all traffic.

Olive Downs was taken up during the 1880s, and was initially 92,000 acres (around 37,000 hectares), but was later combined with other stations, including in Queensland. Olive Downs was incorporated into Sturt National Park in 1973.

From Olive Downs Homestead, the road bears north and almost meets the Queensland New South Wales border, where the Dog Fence can be glimpsed.

We passed dry earth tanks like Halfpenny Tank (above left), and the road varied in colours or orange and cream as we crossed the former station land (above right). Middle road shares Toona Gate Road for a while. A windmill is at Binerah Well then we passed the ruins of Binerah Station, which was incorporated into the park in 1976.

The red road turned to grey sand as we neared the Fort Grey Basin (Lake Pinaroo). There were numerus dead Coolibah trees, which died following the 1974 floods when the area was inundated in a year when 30 inches (762 millimetres) of rainfall fell. The average annual rainfall of this area is 230 millimetres.

In 1996 the lake was recognised as a wetland of international importance as a Ramsar site. As the largest inland lake in north western New South Wales, it is of international significance for birdlife in particular for several years following filling from rain. When filled, the lake can cover 800 hectares.

We then reached and travelled north for a while on the Fortsville Gate Road before turning west again on the Dunes Scenic Drive to Cameron Corner.

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