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| The signpost
for the Oodnadatta Track and Birdsville
Track near Marree |
Marree (including Lake Eyre)
Famous outback town near the vast Lake Eyre
Located 685 km north of Adelaide, 79 km (by dirt
road) from Lyndhurst and only 49 m above sea
level, Marree is a fascinating old settlement on
the edge of the vast desert area of Central
Australia. It is a true desert settlement
receiving an average annual rainfall of only 155
mm.
The area around Marree was first explored by
Europeans when, in 1840, Edward John Eyre
travelled north from Spencer Gulf and reached
the southern shores of Lake Eyre South. In 1859
John McDouall Stuart entered the area and it was
his assistant Herrgott who discovered the mound
springs after which the early town took its name
- although somewhere along the way poor Herrgott
lost an 'r' and the settlement became Hergott
Springs.
Hergott Springs camp was established in 1872
for the maintenance workers on the Overland
Telegraph Line. The camp soon grew into an
outpost for all expeditions heading north and
eventually the famous Afghan camel drivers
established a base at the settlement from which
they headed off to such outlying centres as
Oodnadatta, Birdsville and Alice Springs.
The camp became an official town in 1883 when
the railway reached it. It was named Marree, a
word which is supposed to mean 'place of
possums' in the language of the local
Aborigines. There is some doubt about this
interpretation as there are few possums in the
region and the local word for possum is 'bilda'.
The town continued to be called Hergott
Springs until 1918 when, in the wake of World
War 1 anti-German feeling, the railway station
sign and the post office were both changed to
Marree. This time the name stuck.
Things to see:
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1939 Simpson Desert Expedition Memorial
Near the town's solitary pub is a white plaque
commemorating the Simpson Desert expedition of
1939 in which Cecil T. Madigan and his party
crossed the harsh dry region to the north of the
town.
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| Tom Cruise's
famous Royal Mail Truck in the Museum
Park at Marree |
Museum Park
In Museum Park, in the centre of town beside the
old railway line, is the famous old mail truck
which Tom Kruse used to transport mail from
Marree to Birdsville along the Birdsville track.
Kruse's adventures were superbly captured in the
1952 documentary Back of Beyond which chronicled
the hardships and ingenuity involved in taking
mail and supplies across a desert prone to
flooding, being bogged in sand dunes and
breaking down hundreds of kilometres from any
kind of garage service. Interestingly the old
truck has E. G. Kruse on the side and no one in
town seems to know where the name 'Tom' came
from.
On the northeastern side of town there is a
plaque dedicated to the 'memory of the mail
contractors of the Birdsville Track. 1886-1975.
The real pioneers.'
The town's demise occurred in 1980 when the
railway was closed. There is something sad and
rather forlorn about the rolling stock which
stand at the disused station slowly rusting
away.
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| A derelict
corrugated iron house in Marree
|
Driving Around the Town
It is worth driving around Marree to feel the
extraordinary loneliness and isolation of the
town. There are derelict old corrugated iron
houses and wide streets disappearing into the
desert which encroaches on every side.
The settlement today still recalls the poem
'Marree' which opened:
Oh the corrugated-iron town
In the corrugated-iron air
Where the shimmering heat-waves glare
To the red-hot iron plain
And the steel mirage beyond
Lake Eyre
To the north of Marree is Lake Eyre, Australia's
most famous inland lake. It is located in an
area which receives an annual rainfall of less
than 125 mm per annum and yet it drains an area
of central and northeastern Australia which
covers about 1.3 million sq km - or one sixth of
the continent.
The first European to see Lake Eyre was the
explorer Edward John Eyre who reached Lake Eyre
South in 1840. He thought it was part of Lake
Torrens. The surveyor, G. W. Goyder, who mapped
the area in 1860, named the lake after Eyre.
Known as the most arid area on the continent
the lake commonly records temperatures in excess
of 50°C in summer and has been known to reach
the extraordinary temperature of 61°C. The lake,
recognised as the largest salt pan in the world,
is actually divided into two - Lake Eyre North
and Lake Eyre South - by the 13 km Goyder
Channel. It has only filled three times this
century - 1945-50, 1974 and 1990 - and each time
it does it becomes a haven to a rich variety of
wildlife.
There is evidence that it was three times its
current size (it really was Sturt's mysterious
inland sea) about 30-40 000 years ago. Much of
it lies below sea level and it is estimated that
it has salt deposits exceeding 500 million
tonnes.
Lake Eyre North lies 90 km north of Marree
and the Oodnadatta Track passes close to Lake
Eyre South at a number of points. The lake
achieved certain modern fame in 1964 when Sir
Donald Campbell set a world land speed record of
645 km/h on it in his famous jet propelled
'Bluebird'.
Birdsville Track
Heading directly north from Marree is the famous
Birdsville Track which covers a distance of 517
km across such infamous arid regions at Simpsons
Desert and Sturts Stony Desert. It was developed
in the 1880s as a stock route and has since
become popular with 4WD enthusiasts as it
crosses some of the most arid and isolated
territory in Australia.
The most detailed and comprehensive map of
the Birdsville Track appeared in Australian
Geographic Issue 12 - Oct-Dec 1988. There is an
excellent book Marree and the tracks beyond in
black and white by Lois Litchfield which is an
articulate and comprehensive history of the
whole region.
