ABC Simpson Desert article

Hi Lindsay

You won’t have to worry about that, as if it is in the area I think it is, it is well northwest of Bid Red and in the Northern Territory.

As for the first to locate this find, I do not think so.

Back in the late 1800’s, David Lindsay used these native wells to try and be the first European to cross the Simpson, but unfortunately, it did not work out and only got as far, but north of today’s Poeppel Corner.

The Native well there was ruined in 1962 by the French Petroleum Company in a quest in find a reliable permanent water source that was not the case.

Today this ruined site still attracts dingo and there is lots of aboriginal evidence to be found. We found the remains of an old aboriginal wirlie grinding stones and the remains of a substantial aboriginal burial ground.

The site that I think it is is further northwest of this place again.

Also another person that I personally know, Dennis Bartel has successfully crossed the desert on foot and camel and personally located every aboriginal native well.

So not unless this is a completely new location, it is still a very great find indeed.

Also in 2006 when we did our Geo Simpson crossing, we personally found lots of aboriginal evidence of occupation north east of Geosurvey Hill, on a very small clay pan, again with grinding stones, and lots of stone chippings.

At one of our remote camps there was a flock of birds coming in, which told us there must be some source of water for then.

When we got back home I reported this location to a couple of Government Departments in the Northern Territory, giving them the GPS coordinants, but never heard anything back from them.

Being the worlds largest parallel sand dune system in the world, I bet there are many more secrets to be found out there.



Cheers



Stephen

Here are some of the photos I was talking about.

One thing that I did not say, was we also came across what we thought would have been some sort of chipping ground. On the top of a very small sand dune, the ground was littered with thousands of chipping, and why this location in the middle of the Simpson had us all stumped.

Stephen