General
Information:
The
Simpson Desert occupies approximately 176 500 square kilometres of Central Australia. It is located within, and near the common boundaries of the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland states of Australia. It is bounded to the west by the
Finke River and Mabel Range, to the north by Adam Range, to the east by the Georgina and Diamantina Rivers, with
Lake Eyre to the south. Average annual rainfall is less than 200 mm.
The
Simpson Desert is an erg which contains the world's longest parallel sand dunes. These north-south oriented dunes are static, held in position by vegetation. They vary in height from 3 metres in the west to around 30 metres on the eastern side. The most famous dune, Nappanerica, or, more popularly, Big Red (named by
Simpson Desert traveller Dennis Bartell), is 40 metres in height.
Northern Territory:
In the Northern territory it extends to the west of the Old Ghan Railway to the
Finke River, bounded to the north by the Adam Range, to the east by the Queensland border, and with the South Australian border to the south. Within that area are a number of
reserves, Aboriginal lands, communities and private property.
Using the Hema Maps "Great Desert Tracks NE" sheet, you will see that the
Simpson desert in the Northern Territory, is divided into a number of regions. To the north is Atnetye (North
Simpson Desert). South of that is the largest area, The
Simpson Desert Regional Reserve (NT), bordered by the QLD and SA borders. To the west of the Regional Reserve, is the Pmere Nyente (North West
Simpson Desert), and the Pmer Ulperre Ingwemirne Arietnerre (Finke).
The remaining area, bounded to the north by Atnetye (North
Simpson Desert) and the
Rodinga Range, to the east by the Pmer Ulperre Ingwemirne Arietnerre (Finke), and to the west by the new Central Australia Railway and the
Finke River, contains a large number of interesting tracks, historical sites, geographical features (e.g.
Chambers Pillar), and interesting
places to visit.
Obtain a copy of the 98 page booklet, "Explore the Northern Territory by 4WD" (available from Tourism NT) and have a look at the section titled "Simpson Region". This will give you a number of helpful suggestions on
places to see and things to do in the "Simpson Region" of the NT. It covers things like: The Old Ghan
Heritage Trail; Old
Andado Track;
Chambers Pillar;
Rainbow Valley and what Tourism NT call the "Bookie Track". This track is more commonly known as the
Hay River Track. See the
Hay River Trek on this site for more
information:
http://www.exploroz.com/TrekNotes/RedCtr/Hay_River.aspx
Look at Trek Notes for the Old Ghan Railway Track, Old
Andado Track and for the Colson Track as
well.
Go to
http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/parks/find/centralregion.html for
information on parks and
reserves in the region.