Wallaby 4: Birdsville to Innamincka

The Birdsville Pub with the Citroen 2CV Bash cars outside, crews inside.

On the morning of the 31st of August 2019 we rallied after the night before and had breakfast at the the Birdsville Pub it was a great breakfast but time had moved on so we needed to move on too. Today we wanted to get to Innamincka travelling east on the road to Beetoota, but before we get to Beetoota we turn right into Cordilllo Downs Road. Here we are crossing the Sturts Stony Desert. We soon came across the ruins of first Cadelga Out Station. Next we came across the working Cordillo Downs Station.

Being on a time constraint we did not venture inside but believe you can do a tour of the station including what is renowned to be Australia's if not the worlds largest shearing shed. The woolshed at Cordillo Downs once had stands for 120 shearers which makes it Australia's biggest woolshed. It was a good thing that it was so big, because by the early 20th century, Cordillo Downs, with 85,000 sheep, was Australia's biggest sheep station. Not any more though. Today, the station runs cattle ... ~7,000 of them. Buggered if I know what the cattle eat though. There's not a lot of grass out there. There's not a lot of trees either, which is why the woolshed is made of stones .. they've got lots of them ... :-) __ The Cordillo Downs Homestead and Woolshed, Cordillo Downs Station are listed together on the "Register of the National Estate":http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=5899 and the "SA State Heritage Register":http://www.heritage.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahpi/record.pl?SA10315 __ Cordilo Downs Station is in the far NE corner of South Australia on the track between Innamincka and Birdsville. When you go, and go you should, there's a beaut place to camp at "Cadelga Ruins":http://www.redbubble.com/people/jaykat/art/1879818-3-hallway-cadelga-ruins ~90 kms from the woolshed towards Birdsville. Oh... probably best to do it in a 4WD... and not at all if it's been raining ... :-) Courtesy of RedBubble.

We continued on to Innamincka through the Sturt Stony Desert turned right toward Lyndhurst along the Strzelecki Track driving through the Strzelecki desert and and some new gas fields then the Moomba gas fields beyond Innamincka. We arrived at the Innamincka Pub at 4.30pm. Sadly, we had ran out of time to get out to the Burke and Wills Dig Tree near Innamincka.

There were 5 young families in the Pub from Newcastle NSW who were making their way to the Birdsville races via Broken Hill and Innamincka. They were all towing caravans, mainly pop tops, and were asking about the condition of the road and which way to go. We confirmed that we were content with the route we had travelled, that is from Innamincka take the Strzelecki Track driving to the Cordillo Downs Rd, then at the end of this turn left and you will be in Birdsville. About a 6-7 hours drive. In our opinion the road was in pretty good condition albeit unsealed with some pot holes and large rocks in places. However, we encountered it dry, it would be another story if it was wet. We all enjoyed a drink or two in the Innamincka Pub with Kev feeding the juke box and dancing to some great 70's and 80's music. We were also lucky enough to purchase 2 more bottles of Zerella's Outback Loop Red which we enjoyed in Birdsville after we had crossed the Simpson Desert.