William Creek to Cooper Pedy road conditions

pps.... We drove the Oodnadatta Track from Marree to Marla in mid June and then from Dalhousie via Oodnadatta and south followed by the Borefield Road arriving at Roxby on 1/6/23.
We have driven these roads on many occasions previously. They were all in better condition than I can ever previously recall.
A few 60 second dash cam clips.....
https://youtu.be/uhO26yiAb1o
https://youtu.be/GtvcyVKbkQQ
https://youtu.be/Ns7ZIR1oDXI
https://youtu.be/Ns7ZIR1oDXI
Except for the track to Lambert Centre :) https://youtu.be/GPnD-sM6ihs
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Thanks Peter. I am *very* familiar with the SA outback roads conditions page. Been staring at it several times a day for weeks, mainly because of a couple of key roads in the Flinders that are still closed. :( A description of current conditions is a very helpful addition to the colour coding of that map. Much appreciated.

The trouble is you never know if this is going to be a storm in the teacup or flood with weather forecasting but a lot of those weather streams that come from the Northwest can get pretty severe .

I rely on the BoM's Meteye service to get a sense of the likely areas of rain and the probabilities. It suggests that the amount of rain on Monday and where it might fall is a little uncertain, but Tuesday is looking very bad between Alice and Cooper Pedy and the areas NW of that line. Sunday looks to be OK.

@Peter: I stand corrected. The William Creek to Coober Pedy road is classed as Yellow, i,e, no towing. Bummer. Not sure how I missed this.

Which is odd, as before I noticed this, I rang the William Creek Hotel, and a woman there said that it had just been graded and was in much better than average condition. Perhaps not the section between Coober Pedy and the dog fence, which is reportedly soft and slippery.

Note also that all previous references should be to cooBer Pedy. Apologies.

It has changed again.............that is twice today.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

If you were thinking of taking in the painted desert that road can be extremely corrugated rough around there but very beautiful

It depends..... :)
This was October 2016. We were travelling with a 200 series towing a 23ft caravan.
https://youtu.be/3JkbPSXkKiI
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Roads are currently all still open

Painted Desert Road and Coober Pedy to Oodnadatta are both closed at 3.19pm on 22/6/23 to anything over 3T (and that is most of us I reckon) or anything towing.
A carefully defined restriction that eliminates most tourists but allows the locals to do what they need to do.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

original plan was to head north. Oodnandatta to Finke/Old Andado is open to all vehicles.

You might be lucky :)
In 2019 we waited in Oodnadatta for 4 days until the roads north opened after rain. They were closed behind us too.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Agreed. Esp when your travelling companion is a little nervous.

Thanks, that's useful info. However the plan to follow that route has been overtaken by the weather forecast.

We had the same forecast the week before we went and it never made it that far north

there are two roads to Old Andado.

The Mt Dare to old andado shortcut Road is probably closed permanently because of the massive bulldust through their but you would still be able to use the station Road I would imagine.

This is 6km east of Old Andado in October 2016.
The road was great and the country was extraordinarily green. We were travelling with a 200 series towing a 23ft caravan on the way to Alice Springs.
https://youtu.be/MJtuG45PlIo
The last time we took the Mt Dare to Andado track (which follows some of the Finke River before it disappears into the Simpson) was 1999 and the bull dust was pretty good even then.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

When we came through Oodnadatta a couple of days ago the road sign was still green open, which struck me as misleading when I saw it, as anyone who went that way was at great risk of being stuck out there for some time. I assume that the closure today is anticipatory.

On the original subject of this thread, at William Creek I spoke with some who had just driven from Coober Pedy on the day it went from brown to yellow to red. As the SA website had said, the first 60kms was a bit slippery, but the rest was fine. Based on that report, I'm surprised that they closed it when they did.

It is raining up there :)
Everything N and W of Marree is now shut.
https://www.dit.sa.gov.au/OutbackRoads/_recache
Cheers,
Peter

The Desert Parks Bulletin from 28/6/23.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Hi Peter,

Your link won’t open for me.

Macca.

Works OK for me.

What the locals say is of no consequence and "scouting it out yourself" is not a wise plan.
These roads are either legally open or legally closed to particular vehicle types. If it is open it is OK to drive and if it is not open, you can not drive it. It is as black and white as that. And if you drive it when it is closed to your vehicle, the fines are severe.
It is very simple. There is no debate.
Watch the web site. It can change several times per day. https://www.dit.sa.gov.au/OutbackRoads/_recache
ps... click on the road in question as there is often some additional detail including reduced restrictions for some vehicles....
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

ps....
Some pics from 2019.
It was fine when we left Coober Pedy and it was shut when we arrived at Oodnadatta about 3 hours later.
We waited 4 days for roads to the north to re open.