Last frontier under threat

By ERWIN CHLANDA

It is Australia’s last frontier. For nearly a century it has presented adventurers with extreme challenges, its remoteness presenting vital dangers as well as unadulterated beauty when it turns into an ocean of wildflowers.

Now the Simpson Desert has been put under the control of one of the nation’s most insidious bureaucracies, the Aboriginal Central Land Council, which will control who can enter the vastness of red dunes, and what they can do there.

The Indigenous Protected Area declared last week in the south-eastern corner of the Northern Territory adds 47,311 square kilometres – two thirds the size of Tasmania – to Aboriginal land that already amounts to half of the NT.

The CLC is doing its business in secrecy, with government consent avoiding any kind of transparency. As it sits outside the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act 1982 there are no statutory FOI appeal or review channels available to challenge them.

The land allocation has been imposed without consultation with Tourism Central Australia, its CEO Danial Rochford said when asked.

The new area will fall under the CLC’s complex access permit system.

What will be the conditions, we asked? No answer, which is standard for the CLC. It has already disclosed online that a one-way traffic flow has been mandated by “traditional owners” over significant sections of the iconic tracks.

The west to east direction is chosen by most people because the western flanks of the sandhills – 400 to 1000 of them, depending on your choice of tracks – are less steep than the eastern ones. But now they have to.

Unsupported solo walker Michael Giacometti, towing all of his food, water and equipment in a cart, in 2008 chose to walk towards the west, although it was harder.

That’s the spirit of the people tacking on the Simpson, now facing an obstacle nothing to do with adventure.

Land council CEO Les Turner, in a media handout, announced an agreement with the Federal Government for funds to “protect sacred sites and around 900 animal and plant species” including the crest-tailed mulgara, night parrot, bilby, dusky hopping mouse, plains mouse, princess parrot, grey falcon and eyrean grasswren”.

Have these species and sacred sites been endangered by the past use of the famous desert over nearly 100 years of public ownership, and if so, how? Mr Turner doesn’t say.

Neither Mr Turner nor Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt, who pats himself on the back over this massive land grant, make mention about the million of feral camels roaming the sandhills, being shot from helicopters and left to rot, under a government funded program.

It’s unclear why Aboriginal people are not trapping the beasts and selling them to the racing industry in Arabic countries where, as past examples have shown, their size and strength makes them highly desired.

“The traditional owners have developed an IPA management plan to guide them as they protect the fragile desert environment and their sites against weeds, feral animals, fires and the impacts of tourism,” Mr Watt declares, without explaining why that hasn’t happened in the past.

The Simpson has been a challenge for adventurers and explorers for nearly 100 years.

Ted Colson notched up the first complete crossing in 1936, the first non-Indigenous person to traverse the Simpson Desert in its entirety. Accompanied by Aboriginal stockman Peter Ains, he travelled with five camels from west to east, navigating by compass across more than 1,000 sand dunes. Their success demonstrated that the seemingly impassable desert could be crossed.

Cecil Thomas Madigan in 1939 led one of Australia's most famous exploration expeditions. His party of nine travelled with 19 camels from Andado Station to Birdsville in 25 days.

The expedition carried out scientific observations and pioneered the use of mobile radio broadcasts from the desert. Today's Madigan Line follows much of this historic route.

Warren Bonython and Charles McCubbin in 1973 completed the first recorded north-to-south crossing on foot. They pulled a handcart containing supplies and relied on scheduled air drops of food and water, setting a benchmark for later walking expeditions.

In 1984 Denis Bartel became the first non-Indigenous person to walk solo and unsupported from west to east. He covered about 390 km in 24 days, with the coincidental objective to prove the existence of an Aboriginal well in a location described in documents he had found.

Denis built a cart from aluminium tubes which he could dismantle and join the tubes together and use them as a simple drill. He found the well and replenished his dwindling reserves. And he did it all on his own.

I covered his feat for national and international television, including hosting French journalist Michèle Decoust who made the story part of her book, Australie, les Pistes du Rêve. That assignment, like often in this captivating region, turned into an adventure of its own.

Our rendez-vous with Denis was on a long disused oil company airstrip, about two hours from Alice Springs in a Cessna 206 light aircraft, crossing the track leading from Dalhousie to Birdsville.

Our calculations were spot on: We had no radio contact with Denis but by using a signal mirror he indicated on the appointed day that he was getting close to the airstrip.

I’ve landed in the desert a few times, including once following in Dave Brook, Birdsville publican and pastoralist, landing his Cessna 210 on a strip he knew well.

This was different. I had no idea who had landed last on the oil company runway which looked fine from a distance but there were two kinds of obstacles: Hard, quite tall termite mounds and deep holes where camels sleep.

To spot them meant a few slow and low runs – not a manoeuvre to get wrong – up and down either side of the runway, to pick an exact spot for touch-down and roll-out.

The 206 has a robust locked-down undercarriage and a powerful engine if you need to go ‘round.

Further, having submitted a “full reporting” flight plan in Alice Springs, and giving Alice “circuit area” report, ensured Flight Service knew where we were.

I always left the “cancel search and rescue time” – SAR watch for short – till I was safely on the ground.

If that message doesn’t come through, a comprehensive rescue process starts, with Flight Service calling us, getting other aircraft to call us, and so on.

It’s a relief to know all this but only to a point, because in the middle of the Simpson you may be hours or days from help.

After landing Michèle and I took a small water jerrycan, walked towards Denis and left it in the middle of the track. This was a mistake.

Denis was on an unassisted solo walk. He was aghast. He brought the jerrycan back to us, not having used a drop. He camped overnight with us but only ate from the food he was carrying.

Denis Bartell OAM was a proud man.

He died on January 16, 2024.

In 1998 the legendary Pat Farmer set the Guinness World Record for the fastest crossing on foot by running 379 km in 3 days, 8 hours and 36 minutes. He averaged nearly five km/h while traversing more than 1,100 dunes in extreme heat, Wikipedia reports.

Lucas Trihey in 2006 became the first non-Indigenous person to walk unsupported through the geographical centre of the Simpson Desert, away from established vehicle tracks. He hauled all his equipment in a two-wheeled cart.

Louis-Philippe Loncke in 2008 achieved the first unsupported north-to-south crossing by a non-Indigenous person through the geographical centre of the desert.

Sebastian Copeland and Mark George in 2016 completed the longest unsupported west-to-east crossing, walking about 650 km in 26 days by linking the Madigan Line, Colson Track and French Line.

Adventurer Hans Tholstrup 40 years ago started a bicycle race for young people, 20 or so at the time, which has been held most years since.

Tholstrup crosses the Simpson numerous times.

Thousands of 4WD enthusiasts have only done it only once, taking home ever-lasting memories.

It remains to be seen what recollections the current detour into red tape will generate.

PHOTO from CLC at top: Jeffrey Doolan, Salbena Cleary, Jill Doolan and Richard Doolan checking pitfall traps.