Australia So Much to See

The Oodnadatta Track

Curdimurka (above) was a major station on the Old Ghan line between Alice Springs and Port Pirie.  A tank to the right of this photo is filled from the Artesian bore near the railway yards. 

At Curdimurka, which has the best preserved station on the Old Ghan line, there are goods sheds, railway yard, overhead tank and Kennicott water treatment tower, and a bore which fills a tank at the Station Master’s building.  Being well away from the road, it would be a quiet campsite, and water is available from the tank. 

Margaret Siding (above) is yet another brick station master’s residence, very close to the road and unrestored, with no roof. 

To the right is a capped bore. 

There is a monument to Explorer John McDouall Stuart near the station buildings, and lines of white tyres indicated a possible small airstrip nearby.

Lake Eyre South is a dry lake of 1,260 square kilometres, here viewed at the southern edge from the Oodnadatta Track.  Salt glistened on the surface, and the distant appearance of water is only mirage. 

There are a number of information boards in shelters at the Lake Eyre South viewing area.   

We later drove alongside the full length of the fifteen kilometre long Goyder’s Channel (see this page) which links the two lakes. This only flows into Lake Eyre South when Lake Eyre North fills and overflows into this channel.  This has only been known on two occasions; 1974 and 1984. 

Lake Eyre South does get water in it from time to time from local rainfall.