The Oodnadatta Track, Australia is an unsealed 620 kilometre outback road between Marree and Marla via Oodnadatta in South Australia. Along the way, the track passes the southern lake of the Lake Eyre National Park, and the outback settlements of William Creek and Oodnadatta.
The track follows a traditional Aboriginal trading route. It provides travellers with stunning semi-desert scenery. Along the Track are numerous springs feeding water from the Great Artesian Basin, the most accessible examples being the mound springs found in Wabma Kadarbu Mound Springs Conservation Park near Coward Springs. Later, because of the availability of water, the route was chosen for the steam-train powered Central Australian Railway, the original route of The Ghan, also the route taken by the explorer John McDouall Stuart on his third expedition in 1859. Remnants of the many railway sidings and bridges, the ruins of railway buildings, and Overland Telegraph repeater stations are located along the track - some of the best preserved are the Coward Springs Campground - complete with natural artesian spa and Curdimurka.
Today, the Oodnadatta Track roughly follows the former railway line as far north as Oodnadatta, and then turns to the west, meeting the sealed Stuart Highway at Marla. The road's surface is rough, with plenty of bone-jarring corrugations, especially on the stretch of road between William Creek and Oodnadatta. In dry weather, the track is passable to most vehicles and caravans, but a four wheel drive (4x4) vehicle will provide a more comfortable journey, and will be essential for driving the track during and after rain.
The Track was named by Adam Plate of the Oodnadatta Progress Association Inc. in about 1980 to form a trilogy of unsealed tourist routes with the Birdsville and Strzelecki Tracks nearby.
Famous quotes containing the word track:
“To most men, experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)