Canning Stock Route

Duration: 21 days Alice Springs - Adelaide

2003 Departures:
21 June - 11 July

We depart from Alice Springs in convoy and head north up the Tanami Track. Nat "Bluey" Buchanan, the King of the Drovers, first travelled the Tanami. He was 70 years old when he did this! Like the Birdsville Track, the Tanami is nowadays more of a road. Shortly after leaving Alice we'll pass the Jindalee "over the horizon radar" system and cross the Tropic of Capricorn. Further up the track, we pass The Granites, operated by Flinders Mines Ltd. The Granites Goldmine is a highly efficient and profitable operation. Between 150 and 200 people work at the mine. We travel through Rabbit Flat and visit the remarkable Wolfes Creek meteorite crater, the second largest in the world after the Canyon Diabolo crater in Arizona. Scientists estimate that a meteor weighing about 40,000 tonnes hit the earth here. The rim of the crater is 800 metres wide and 35 metres above the surrounding plains.

The first payable gold in Western Australia was found at Halls Creek in 1885, at the top of the Tanami Track. By 1886 more than 2,000 prospectors were digging on the goldfield. The present town was built in 1955. Halls Creek is on the Great Northern Highway, and will be our last opportunity to take on provisions before heading south.

168 kms south of Halls Creek, we arrive at Billiluna, on Sturt Creek. Cattle from this station made up 29 of the 35 known drives down the Canning. The first cattle drive was in 1911, and the last in 1959 - the cattle mobs were between 300 and 800 head. The station was sold to the Aboriginal Land Trust in 1977. We are in explorer country. Carnegie passed here in 1896/7, Gregory in 1856 and Warburton in 1873 Following the west of the Sturt Creek overflow, we arrive at the first well - No. 51, known as Weriaddo. This is the real start of the Canning, it was the delivery camp for the drovers. It is also our entry point to the Great Sandy Desert. Some 70 km. further we are in the Southesk Tablelands, where members of Carnegie's party found a natural dam, which they called Godfrey's Tank. At around well 46, which was restored in 1991, the track starts to get rough, with corrugations, and Sandhill's. We won't stop at every well, but select those of interest. Some were built beside native wells, at others there are graves of drovers, either dying of illness or murder. There are areas strewn with Aboriginal artefacts, there are depressions where Aboriginals sharpened their spears in the rock, in fact, the whole area reeks of a fascinating history. At well 35 we cross the Callowa Track, built by Len Beadell in the early 60s as part of the network of tracks associated with the Woomera Rocket Range. Some 120 kms further on; we arrive at Mujingerra spring, where we can climb down a shaft to a cave full of crystal clear water and beautiful clusters of chalcedony. Many of our camps will be beneath desert oaks (Casuarina decaisneana). The Canning virtually delineates their westernmost point.

We continue on to Teiwa Well (26), which in 1983 was the first well to be reconstructed, and shortly we cross the Talawana Track, which if followed 450 km. to the west, one would arrive at Newman. It is at this junction we will pick up our fuel dump (in 44-gallon drums). With the vast Salt Lake Disappointment to the east, we cross Savory Creek and shortly the tropic of Capricorn. Just south is Durba Springs; its natural pound shape making it an ideal place to make a cattle camp. At Durba there is some stunning Aboriginal art work, including the famous "Dutchman", a figure in pantaloons thought perhaps to be a survivor of a Dutch Shipwreck. We will travel to the seldom visited Calvert Range with it's extensive Aboriginal rock paintings and petroglyphs.

Further south is Lake Nabberu. Canning encountered extreme difficulty crossing this lake, so he built a crossing of logs held together with rope, which became known as the corduroy crossing. South of here we encounter some Minnaritchie trees, the red mulga, and extremely rare tree that those who have been with us to the Simpson Desert would remember on the road from Pedirka railway siding to Dalhousie. Another 100 km. and we roll into Wiluna having completed the worlds longest and most remote stock route. During the 1930s, Wiluna had twelve taxis, five sporting ovals, three swimming pools, three soft drink factories and four pubs, but in 1947 the mine closed and the population dropped to around 1000. We'll use Wiluna to clean up, both ourselves and the equipment, and re stock for the next leg, the journey back across Australia to Adelaide.

Pricing

AU$ 3,300 / person

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