Australia So Much to See

Poll Hereford cattle on Muloorina Station (above) were plentiful and in good condition, even on sandy areas such as this. They were not at all perturbed by passing traffic and at times they just stood on the road.

Our drive to Level Post Bay on the Madigan Gulf of Lake Eyre was on a fairly good track with some sand dune crossings. After twenty kilometres, we reached the Goyder Channel near where it opens into Lake Eyre South. Our road followed along fairly close the channel for the entire length.

Southern section of Goyder Channel above left. There was a track across the Goyder Channel with a locked gate (above right) and fencing alongside to prevent access to the channel by vehicles. There were warning signs not to drive on the surface.

As we were taking a run up a dune, this group of cows (above left) stood their ground, as if saying "We shall not be Moo-ved".

A dilapidated fence (above right) made its way to the Goyder Channel, where little remained but a few posts lying on the channel floor.

There were warning signs not to drive on the surface and saying no public access.

From here it was signed as the Lake Eyre National Park, and the fifteen kilometre track to Level Post Bay became a corrugated 4wd track with sandy crests.

The channel was meandering towards Lake Eyre here (at right)

Looking over the dry southern section of Madigan Bay, from Level Post Bay. Only mirages shimmered in the distance. Circles on the lake bed in photo above left are tracks from cars doing circles, despite signs requesting the lake bed not be driven on.

Photo at right looks westwards to Elliott Price Conservation Park, an elongated strip of land into Lake Eyre, dividing Jackboot Bay from Madigan Bay.

At Lake Eyre on July 17^th 1964 in the gas turbine powered Bluebird, Donald Campbell broke the world land speed record by attaining a speed of 848 kilometres per hour. This was achieved despite great adversity, on a strip of the salt lake bed about twenty kilometres north of this point.

Erected as a tribute to a brave man.

Evan Green, project manager

Presented by Nissan Motor Co Australia Pty Ltd

Lake Eyre was considered permanently dry when it was first discovered by an unhappy John Eyre in the 1840s. The existence of water was reported in the early 20th century, but these reports were dismissed as observation errors or mirages. It wasn’t until the first recorded filling of the lake in 1949 that people began to realise the whole truth. Lake Eyre catchment covers 1.2 million square kilometres, bringing water following rains from as far away as the Gulf Country in north Queensland.

In 1975, Lake Eyre held about 27 tetralitres of water, roughly five times Sydney Harbour. When dry there can be a salt crust of up to half a metre deep.

Level Post Bay is named because of a graduated gauge post placed near this point after the first recorded filling of the lake in the 1950s, to measure the evaporation rate in the lake. The post was washed away during the 1975 floods.

Read about all the adversities encountered on Bluebird, including rain, bogging and lake crust breakdown.

It is also the site where Donald Campbell commenced his time trials in 1964, the year he broke the world land speed record. Details from information boards at Level Post Bay below. See more about Donald Campbell’s 1964 achievements on Fifty years ago, Donald Campbell set two speed records in Australia and Donald Campbell's World Water Speed Record.

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Please note: The track to Level Post Bay is currently closed due to road conditions. This appears to be long term.