Halligan Bay Campsite - Lake Eyre National Park SA
Comments
05 Sep 2010 20:50 Member - Neil B (QLD)
We travelled into Halligan Bay on the 4th August. The road in was quite good having been not long graded. However the last 10 km into Halligan Bay was quite cut up and was very badly corrugated. Not a bad run and was about 1.5hrs from the Oodnadatta Track turnoff. The appeal of Lake Eyre lies in its stark wilderness and timeless landscape. It covers an area of 1,349,251 ha and its vastness (it is 144 km long and 77 km wide) can create a sensation of personal insignificance and complete isolation, bringing on mixed reactions in different people.
Lake Eyre is an extensive 'salt sink' which derives its mineralisation from the evaporation of floodwaters over countless years. During the last forty years or so the lake has seen many floods of varying sizes. Water from its three-State catchment area covers the lake about once every eight years (on average) while the lake has only filled to capacity three times in the last 150 years.
Seasonal rainfalls attract waterbirds such as Australian Pelicans, Silver Gulls, Red-necked Avocets, Banded Stilts and Gull-billed Terns. There are a number of theories being put forward on what triggers the instinct for the birds to migrate to Lake Eyre, however no definitive answers are known. When the lake floods, it becomes a breeding site for enormous numbers of waterbirds, especially species that appear to be tolerant of salinity.
Elliot Price Conservation Park, adjoining Lake Eyre National Park, was South Australia's first arid zone reserve, set up to conserve the wilderness of Lake Eyre and named after the 'king' of nearby Muloorina Station, the late Elliot Price (there is no vehicle access to Elliot Price Conservation Park).
REGION: > SA > Lake Eyre National Park
Track E off Oodnadatta Track
Lake Eyre National Park SA 0
GPS:-28.746,136.9127
GPS:S28 44 45,E136 54 45
GPS:S28 44.76,E136 54.762
