Simpson Desert - History

History

The explorer Charles Sturt, who visited the region from 1844–1846, was the first European to see the desert. In 1880 Augustus Poeppel, a surveyor with the South Australian Survey Department determined the border between Queensland and South Australia to the west of Haddon Corner and in doing so marked the corner point where the States of Queensland and South Australia meet the Northern Territory. After he returned to Adelaide, it was discovered that the links in his surveyor's chain had stretched. Poeppel’s border post was too far west by 300 metres. In 1884, surveyor Larry Wells moved the post to its proper position on the eastern bank of Lake Poeppel. The tri-state border is now known as Poeppels Corner. In January 1886 surveyor David Lindsay ventured into the desert from the western edge, in the process discovering and documenting, with the help of a Wangkangurru Aboriginal man, nine native wells and travelling as far east as the Queensland/Northern Territory border. In 1936 Ted Colson became the first white person to cross the desert in its entirety riding camels. The name Simpson Desert was coined by Cecil Madigan, after Alfred Allen Simpson, an Australian industrialist, philanthropist, geographer, and president of the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. Mr Simpson was the owner of the Simpson washing machine company. In 2006 Lucas Trihey was the first person to walk across the desert through the geographical centre away from vehicle tracks and unsupported. He carried all his equipment in a two wheeled cart and crossed from East Bore on the western edge of the desert to Birdsville in the east. In 2008, Belgian Louis-Philippe Loncke became the first person to complete a north-south crossing of the desert on foot and unsupported and through the geographical centre,. In 1967, the Queensland Government established the Simpson Desert National Park.

No maintained roads cross the desert. However, there are tracks that were created during seismic surveys in the search for gas and oil during the 1960s and 1970s. These include the French Line, the Rig Road, and the QAA Line. Such tracks are still navigable by well-equipped four-wheel-drive vehicles which must carry extra fuel and water. Towns providing access to the South Australian edge of the Simpson Desert include Innaminka to the south and Oodnadatta to the southwest; and from the eastern (Queensland) side include Birdsville, Bedourie, Thargomindah and Windorah. Last fuel on the western side is at the Mount Dare hotel and store. Before 1980, a section of the Commonwealth Railways Central Australian line passed along the western side of the Simpson Desert.

The desert is popular with tourists, particularly in winter, and popular landmarks include the ruins and mound springs at Dalhousie Springs, Purnie Bore wetlands, Approdinna Attora Knoll and Poeppel Corner (where Queensland, South Australia and Northern Territory meet). Because of the excessive heat and inadequately experienced drivers attempting to access the desert in the past, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has decided since 2008-2009 to close the Simpson Desert during the summer — to save unprepared "adventurers" from themselves.

Some of the heaviest rain in decades occurred during 2009-2010, and has seen the Simpson Desert burst into life and colour. Rain inundated Queensland’s north-west and Gulf regions. In total, 17 million megalitres of water entered the State’s western river systems leading to Lake Eyre. In 2010, researchers uncovered the courses of ancient river systems under the desert.