Any Guestimates when the QAA LINE, POEPPEL CORNER – BIRDSVILLE may be open

Keep your plans. They'll be open then

Keep an eye on the Warburton crossing, I don't think it opened at all last year.
It definately wasnt open mid August when we were poking around birdsville

There is still water coming down from the northern rivers. It may do so for quite some time. Below is the latest weather warning (that may have far reaching benefits) from the BOM:

TROPICAL CYCLONE WATCH

TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 3
Issued by the BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, DARWIN
at 5:00 am CST Saturday 27 March 2010

A Cyclone WATCH continues for a developing tropical low for coastal areas and
island communities from Cape Don to Nhulunbuy.

At 3:30 am CST a Tropical Low was estimated to be 210 kilometres north of
Maningrida and 385 kilometres northwest of Nhulunbuy and moving southeast at 9 kilometres per hour.

There is the possibility of a Tropical Cyclone developing but GALES are not
expected in coastal areas within the next 24 hours, however gales may develop
later.

With any luck iot might travel south and dump some more rain in \to the Murray/Darling catchment areas. Much more water is still needed in the southern end of the country to help replenish dams, reservoirs, billabongs, waterways, forests, creeks, rivers etc. You will just have to bide your patience re a trip into the channel country. perhaps sometime next year. Good luck.

Hi Tony,

At the moment if we don't get any more rain north of Birdsville the Eyre creek won't be open until late May at the earliest & I doubt that the Warburton track will be open at all again this year.

Hi gents, here's my 2 bobs worth. Last year the Diamantina floods ran through Jan and Feb with the bulk of the water gone past Birdsville by mid March.Level at 25/3/09 was 2.5m and 2 days ago it's still at 7.4 m As mentioned the Warburton never opened at all. Eyre Creek also flooded and was closed when we drove out to it in late May.See pix in Places. The bypass which is 30km north eventually opened mid June.

This years floods are roughly 6 weeks later and nearly as big so my guesstimate is that the Eyre bypass won't open until mid July so it will be touch and go but you should be OK. The wildflowers should be tremendous.... W

At this stage there is 100% more water coming down the Cooper than the 2004 flood which was the biggie. With an already wet area from last year that means less chance of things opening up

The Warburton will most likely remain closed as it did last year for the duration. Eyre Creek is seriously in doubt according to our information. We have two crossings planned in June and July and hare seriously considering cancelling both of them

Whilst we are optimistic that the desert will open I would suggest an alternate plan would be a fine idea. After all the Simspon is not going away and the wild flowers will be fantastic across the outback and Flinders Ranges.

Arkaroola is emerald green and the whole Flinders is looking fantastic so consider that as an option. There has also been heaps of rain in the centre so the Mereenie Loop will be another place where the scenery and regrowth is really coming along

We are currently rescheduling tours into the APY Lands as the Mt Davies Road, always challenging, is heavily overgrown and the tracks to Surveyor Generals Corner are not in great condition and the same of the old gunbarrel and into the Musgrave Ranges

Non of this is actually bad news as it offers everyone a chance to see the outback in a completely different light. So have a couple of back up plans and just enjoy whatever nature delivers

Regards

RobA

We'll have a better idea in a week or so, as to how things are going to pan out....

Ya'all might like to keep a close eye on this fella here >> BOM satellite image

Any half-decent rain at all south of the Barkly & Flinders H'ways will have a significant impact on Eyre Ck and Diamantina River flows...

The upper Thompson R catchment got some moderate falls from the remnants of Ului.. Not enough to cause significant river rises (don't think it even made the news;-), but it's just that much more water that has to make it's way down the Cooper Creek... If this area should happen to get any rain from the current developing system, well, we'll wait and see...........

:)

Just got a call on the sat phone from the boss he is currently on the QAA line west of Eyre creek, very boggy around lake Poepple & the K1 lake area.

Also found it hard to see the track across the French Line.