19-Jul-2006 --

Sitting around a campfire at the Louth picnic races back in August 2004, a friend suggested it would be great if we could make a trip incorporating the Boulia Camel Races, a trek across the Simpson Desert and ending up at Louth for the annual picnic races. So, it was planned for 2006. There was to be 4 weeks between the races at Boulia and the races at Louth, so plenty of time to do a nice long relaxing desert trip.

Just before setting out for this trip in July 2006, my brother suggested that I look at the Confluence Project website as he felt we must be going close to a number of confluence points along the way. And, so it seemed we were.

After a couple of days relaxing on Coopers Creek at Windorah, we set off for Diamantina Lakes National Park and a rendezvous with the first of our travelling companions. After being rained in at Hunters Gorge in the National Park we ended up missing the Camel Races altogether, arriving in Boulia on the Monday after the races had finished, but making a rendezvous with the second set of friends making the trip with us. We then set off to the Georgina River, where we camped for a few days on Midgingar Waterhole (near “Glenormiston”), and enjoyed the yabbies we caught, while awaiting the last of our travelling companions.

While we waited for our last friends to appear we decided to visit the Confluence Point at 23S 139E. We had noticed on the way to the Georgina River that the road crossed the 139E line, and that there was a stock route track heading south at that point, so that seemed a good place to start. We drove in through the gate on a well formed track, although it did not seem that anyone had driven along it recently. The track headed basically in the right direction so we were able to follow it for quite a way in before needing to head off road. Using the GPS to navigate we headed out in the general direction of the Confluence Point but came up against one of the many channels of the Georgina. From our map we could see that the channels seemed to end a little further along so we headed along the waterhole to its end. After recent rain the area was boggy and all but one of the vehicles stopped while we made way on foot. Shorty and Wash drove out, while the rest of enjoyed the walk of 2km to the point. When we got there Shorty and Wash had found the point and built a small pile of rocks. We then spent a few minutes trying to get 3 different GPS units to agree on the correct point.

The land was flat and mostly gibber, but close to the Georgina channels where the ground was boggy there was grass and smaller vegetation studded with trees. On the way in we had noticed a small rocky outcrop and stopped to climb it on the way back. From the top we could see that the area had been excavated for some reason, although not an obvious one.