Birdsville and Back September 2017

Iam in a group, most likely a minority, that when they achieve their Private Pilots Licence would like to fly at some point through the outback to Birdsville.  So this journey has been a forty, with an in between thirty year flying hiatus, in the making.  My appetite was whetted last year in a four plane group that went to Longreach and back, an experience I thoroughly enjoyed.  On the return, I started planning for a trip in the next year.   Colin and Britta with their Archer  signed up, and while I would have preferred the Cherokee 6  for its speed and range, I could only get one other, Mike to come along, so we ended up going in a Warrior.

So we settled on a itinerary, a commencement date and organised accommodation for each of the nights.  Spring is usually a good time to fly the outback, with maybe a few challenges leaving and returning through the Sydney basin if you are a VFR pilot.  Not this year, however, as there has been consistent wet weather out west, which had closed some of the dirt airstrips we would like to fly into.  Also, the Bureau of Meteorology outlook for the week of flying suggested unsettled weather for the first couple of days, one nice one followed by one with significant rain, and then fine weather for the remainder of the trip.

On the strength of this we decided to proceed, with Saturday September 17 as the starting date.  Weather on the day, was basically as per expectations.  Leaving 20 minutes after Colin and Britta, Mike and myself made Louth, with a rest stop at Wellington and a fuel stop at Cobar, basically at 4500 feet, mostly into a solid headwind.  It was close to 5 hours flying in the Warrior.  Colin and Britta, however, had to return to Bankstown, due to some nasty weather west of the Blue Mountains.  I believe I saw this to the south of our track and it looked thick and dark.  Goes to show what a difference 20 minutes can make, one aircraft can get to their destination, the other has to return home and be stuck there for a few days.  As it turned out, Colin and Britta had to abandon a truncated itinerary a few days later, due to the wet east coast weather.

We made Louth by 4pm, tied down the aircraft and transferred to our accommodation at Shindy’s Inn which was a couple of comfy cabins overlooking the Darling River.  This was flowing steadily at a depth of 6 metres, but we were safe from flooding, as the river needed to rise another 12 metres before the eastern levee banks, where we were, could be breached.   The extensive flood plain for the Darling is on its western side.    We retired to the bar for a Pizza dinner, a few beers and a chat with the locals.  We did learn that Louth Primary School, a five student one teacher affair, has actually 8 staff supporting the operation, thus making it a 1.6 to 1 staff student ratio.

Next morning we did meet forty percent of the student population.  One of the kids had a cool Akubra hat adorned with sheep tags from the various properties in the district.  Anyway, as per forecast, the morning’s weather was overcast with showers, but by midday started to clear with a stiff westerly.   This was good enough for the flight to Tibooburra, albeit slowly and at 2500 feet.  Also, if the weather deteriorated en-route, there were plenty of options and fuel for a diversion, all with a significant tailwind.

Mike was learning what it was like to maintain straight and level in choppy conditions, and finally a bit of a cross wind landing at Tibooburra runway 20 into a 15 knot south westerly.   Fill the tanks and get a ride into town for the night’s stay at the Tibooburra hotel.  Before dinner, we had a walk around town.  At the Pioneer Park there is a replica of Charles Sturt’s whale boat.  While there is no Inland Sea, if Sturt was doing his expedition about now, I think he might have found his boat quite useful.  At dinner we met the crew, Ojar and Brian, of the only other aircraft, a Comanche, parked at the airport.   They started out from Tyabb the previous day, but had to divert to White Cliffs about five miles from Tibooburra due to a lowering ceiling and reduced visibility.   Apparently, they have crossed the Tasman in the Comanche via Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands.   

The next day, we decided to go to Birdsville as the strip at Innaminka was still wet.  So we get a lift to the airport just as Ojar and Brian were departing.  They were aiming via Birdsville for Mount Isa that day.    The weather was as forecast, clear skies, headwinds as usual, but variable at 2000 feet, with a change expected late afternoon.  So with a flight time of over 3 hours, some thought had to be given, where to divert, if the change came through earlier than expected.  There are not too many sealed strip options out here, basically no avgas Moomba , Leigh Creek , Windorah, Thargomindah  or return to Tibooburra.

On the flight to Birdsville we overflew Cameron’s Corner with the intention to drop in if its airstrip dried out, in a couple of days.  Northwest of Innaminka is a confluence of several waterways and small lakes.  Overflying, reminded me of a scenic flight over Arnhem Land a decade ago, it was that green and wet.  The only difference was the lack of 4 plus meter crocks sprinkled throughout the wetlands.  For the last 60 miles or so into Birdsville, tiring of the headwinds, we flew at around 1000 feet, following mostly green covered red sand dunes, with large pools of water in between, for a 10 knots ground speed bonus.  A cross wind landing at Birdsville, fill the tanks, followed by a taxi to the premium parking position near the security gate, which was closest to the hotel.

Birdsville Aviation Fuels offered to take our photo for their facebook page, in return for a round of beers at the hotel, a no brainer proposition.  A late lunch at the Birdsville Bakery, followed by a couple of beers at the Birdsville Hotel, filled in the rest of the afternoon before the Big Red tour.  Kyle from Desert Edge Tours collected us about 5:00pm for a tour around town, the race course, start of the Birdsville track and then about a 30 minute four wheel drive west of town to the “Big Red”.  We missed the sunset, being blocked by the forecast weather change, which looked quite intensive, coming in from the west.  However, the tour was well worth doing and Kylie was a fountain of local knowledge.

The next day we moved from the hotel to a cottage, the Outback Shack, an Airbnb property hosted by Jenna.  It was initially an overcast and blustery day, but nowhere near as bad as forecast.  We did a bit of a walking tour of Birdsville, starting with the Billabong, Wirrari Visitor Information Centre, the main street with some old weathered stone buildings, bore water outlet and the geothermal power station which is powered by the 280 psi, 98 degree bore water.  Dinner that night, like the night before, was at the hotel, albeit with a limited menu due to road closures which was impacting food supplies.

After a comfortable night in the “Shack”, Jenna collected us late morning and dropped us off at the airport.  Departing Birdsville, we first overflew Big Red which is about 16 miles to the west.  Then we set course for Tibooburra, due to the previous day’s rain closing Innaminka again.  On the way we overflew Innaminka, with Cooper Creek looking quite full.  Of course with the weather change, the north westerly headwinds of the first three days were substituted with south westerlies, but at least our ground speed was in the low one hundreds.  We had to climb to 7500 to get on top of a band of scattered stratocumulus, found a nice large hole close to Tibooburra for the descent and landed runway 20 in a light cross wind.  Then effectively repeat of several days previously, fill the tanks and get a ride into town for the night’s stay at the Tibooburra hotel.  We re-acquainted with a few of the locals, including a chap who stopped his four wheel drive in the middle of the main street opposite the School of the Air for a chat.   The next day, the fine weather continued as forecast, and that finally the dirt strips at Cameron’s Corner and Noccundra would be open. 

Cameron’s Corner airstrip was firm and dry, but also had a few ruts due to the persistent wet weather.  After landing in South Australia, a five minute walk takes us into Queensland to the roadhouse, bar and accommodation complex.   While were having a sandwich, two of the locals, from a 1.3 million acre station 20 kilometres away in South Australia, dropped in with their Robinson R22 helicopter for lunch.   We also established, that the helicopter was an upgrade from a gyrocopter, and that the journey from home to Broken Hill is a bit over two hours at a cruise speed about 10 knots less than the Warrior.

One of the attractions is a golf course of nine holes, with sand greens.  There are holes in each of the three states.   We completed the short stopover with a walk over to the tri state marker.  A short field take-off and we were air borne around half way along the airstrip.  The flight to Noccundra, on a easterly track took about an hour.  We landed, and it was a short walk to the Noccundra Hotel, which was where we staying that night.   If possible, Noccundra felt even more remote than Cameron’s Corner, the nearest neighbour is Nockatunga Station at 2.3 million acres, is managed by just  a couple.  Labour for mustering, fencing etc. is brought in when needed.  There are simply no locals at Noccundra except the publican Neil and his family.  Its existence relies entirely on travellers.

The only other guests staying that night at the Noccundra Hotel, heritage listed and serving beer since 1882, were a couple of pigeon liberators, Barry and Andrew from Ballarat, along with 202 homing pigeons in cages on the back of their utility.  Apparently, in the pigeon racing world Noccundra is a good place to start pigeon races for Victoria, Queensland and NSW.  This particular race was the Victorian Open, essentially the Melbourne Cup for pigeons, with a distance of 1100 kilometres which the birds will fly in about 36 hours and can come with some serious prize money.  200 birds is not particularly a big field.  For the shorter races, the liberating vehicle can be a truck with over 1000 pigeons.  Only about half the birds will make it, either they get lost or become dinner – apparently the Hawks further south are particularly fond of pigeon.

The next morning I woke at sunrise to observe the pigeon liberation in perfect conditions of clear skies and a light north easterly.  Essentially, they do a few orbits to gain height and warm up before heading for home.  I could see one pigeon was losing interest in proceedings.  Later in the morning was observed perched in a tree, obviously preferring discretion to valour.  A couple of hours later we were on our way to Thargomindah in perfect flying conditions.  When we arrived we topped up the fuel, which was followed by a 1 kilometre walk into town for a cup of coffee.  Then back to the plane for the short flight to Eulo, landing on its 1400 metre plus all weather dirt strip.  The walk into Eulo was only about 300 metres with the general store being a stop off point for a bite to eat.    Final stop for the day was Hungerford about forty minutes south, essentially following the Paroo River which had plenty of water in it.

Graham, publican of the Royal Mail Hotel built in 1873 picked us up from the airport, after a wait where I thought I might have to hike several kilometres into town due to lack of mobile reception.  It does not take much to walk around Hungerford, the main highlight being crossing the border into NSW through the Dingo (Wild Dog) gate.   The Mosquitos, however, were ferocious due to the proximity of the Paroo, which was still rising.  Anyway, after the whistle stop tour of the Bulloo Shire, it was time to adjourn to the bar for some refreshments.  The locals as usual were friendly, allowing the AFL (Swans beat Geelong) rather than the NRL (Cronulla beat the Cowboys) preliminary final to be watched on the big screen TV.

Graham returned us to the airport next morning about 08:00, in order to get an early start for several hours of flying to Bankstown.  The first flight, in still clear conditions, was about 100 nautical miles to the south east to Bourke.  After filling the tanks, we then proceeded to Wellington observing the impact of the recent rains on the countryside.  At Wellington there was a bit of an informal fly in, apparently promoted by a pilot who used to own land adjacent to Wellington airport.  The final flight took us to Bankstown for just under five hours total flying for the day which was fortunately tailwind assisted.   So a thoroughly enjoyable week has come to an end.  It was a rare opportunity to experience the Outback after a period of substantial rain.