The Green Lizards of Birdsville and the Simpson Desert

Birdsville’s population expands massively during the Horse Races and the Big Red Bash – The Hotel was established in 1884 and is still going very strong despite fires and calamities. Customs like this one give it a special resilience.

There is hot water just coming out of the earth – it has to be cooled to be put into residents’ water pipes!

Birdsville is the venue for the Big Red Bash in July, a massive music festival under the sky. We had a tour of the city and saw brolgas dancing before climbing bits of the Big Red Sand Dune which stands at 40m. Here is Charlie running to make it back to the bus in time.

Our pilot Tyler took us over the Simpson desert and explained to us the parallel dunes which are formed so because of the direction of the prevailing winds. It has 1100 longitudinal dunes. Miles and miles of them. It takes approximately 4 days to drive across the desert and if anyone is interested in the experience press on this link https://www.traveller.com.au/dune-busters-crossing-the-simpson-desert-go0wjx. It is a pretty remote and arid place but there are surprises over each dune, views to die for, critters and night time skies to lose yourself in.

Our destination for the night was William Creek – one of the worlds remotest pubs. We met the owner Trevor Wright, an intrepid businessman, a caring Aussie with a great sense of humour. The population of William Creek is officially 12 – that’s what the board says. The galahs in the tree were so loud.