Marree & Muloorina Station:

April 10 -13th

Marree is located approximately 685klms north of Adelaide at the juction of the Birdsville track & Oodanata track, it was first known as Hergott Springs & changeds name to Marree in 1883 although the railway station kept the Hergott Springs name until 1916. There are quite a few relics of the Ghan (old ghan) engines located in & around the town of Marree. The Tom Kruse truck is amongst the relics in the museum park, Tom Kruse was one of the drivers delivering mail & supplies between Marree & Birdsville(along the Birdsville track). The Marree Hotel was built in 1883 & is the only solid sand stone structure in working order left in Marree. The camel sundial(which apparently shows the exact time) was built from old railway sleepers by the Afghans, they also built the 1st Mosque(1862) in Australia, there is now a replica of the original mosque in the park. At one stage Marree became known as ‘little asia’ due to the large population of Afghan cameleers. Took a look in the Lake Eyre Yacht Club, lotz of memorabilia of past years & facts about Donald Campbell who on 17th July 1964, at his 2nd attempt, set the land speed record on the dry salt pan of lake Eyre in his Bluebird car.

Muloorina is situated 54klms NW of Maree, on the edge of Lake Eyre. It is both a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station & a formal bounded locality in SA. The campground is located on the Frome River with a permanent Artesian fed pool, what an amazing place, lotz of space, concrete picnic tables, good shade trees, 2 flushing toilets, excellent swimming & just awesome. We camped up for 2 nights, took a drive approximately 55klms from camp along a very sandy quite corrugated track to Level Post Bay which is located on the Madigan Gulf & part of Lake Eyre North (cannot drive any further), on the drive back we passed Goyder Channel that links the 2 parts of the lake (nth & sth)- its a pretty amazing place. When the lake has water in it, the deepest point of the lake is located at Level Post Bay and the Lake Eyre basin contains the lowest natural point in Australia at approximately 15mts below sea level.