We started off on a trip into the unknown, amidst COVID-19 Lockdowns and border closures, we weren’t entirely sure we would even be able to make it to some of our planned destinations, first of which was Cameron Corner. Two nights and three days of driving later first from Brisbane to St George, then on to Noccundra, finally, we got our answer.

Thankfully we were able to make it through. There is a small shop and service station out there which thankfully falls on the Queensland side of the border, as we would later find out, the gates from New South Wales and South Australia were both locked shut. From here, we needed to reassess how we would make our way north, as our intended pathway through Innamincka, due to Border Closures was now no longer a viable option. It was decided we would try and find a path north whilst staying within the bounds of Queensland.

With that, we made our way east until we linked up with a small winding dirt road called Omicron Road, that would take us north, to our halfway camp as we travelled up the Queensland-South Australia Border, The Dig Tree.

Famous for its part in the doomed Burke and Wills expedition of August 1860-Augus 1861, the Dig Tree would be our point of call for the night and would be a harking back to a trip we did previously in 2001 when I was only 4. We set up for the night, in roughly the same location as 20 years prior and enjoyed a beautiful moon rise.

Early the next day we set off for the second Corner in our three Corner adventure, Haddon Corner. To get there however, would require driving over some of the most uncomfortable, rocky roads I have ever been on.

Here was a road unlike anything else I’ve been on and I’m afraid the photo above doesn’t quite do this road justice. Rocks strewn across, from one side of the road to the other, running for 220 Kilometers, washouts that were at times deep enough I would loose sight of the second car in our convoy, and corrugations that I am certain would wear anyone down after not too long. And it was so much fun!

After 4 or so hours of driving along this road, we finally reached the turn off to Haddon Corner. This is then followed by two small sand dunes, that for me, were my first taste of desert driving.

Leaving Haddon Corner, we jumped back on the Arrabury - Nappa Merrie Road towards the Birdsville Developmental Road, where we would spend a night at a small bushcamp, about 30 Kilometers out of Betoota.

Treated to a beautiful sunset and pristine weather overnight, we were able to rest up and relax as we only had a small drive the next day to Birdsville.

With Birdsville only 130 Kilometers from our camp, we left our site later than normal at about nine o’clock in the morning. The drive was thankfully pretty straightforward, with some impressive scenery as the land slowly morphed from flat plains to ever increasing Dune fields.

Making it into Birdsville just after Lunch, we set up for the next few nights and made our way into the Iconic Birdsville Hotel, enjoying a nice cold beer and an incredible pub feed for lunch.

We spent the next two days in Birdsville, before Dad and I made our way out into the Simpson Desert for the third and final Corner on the our list to tick off. Poeppel Corner, bordering Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

The Simpson Desert was my first time driving something like this. The dunes, the swales, the corrugations in between and the whoops and bounces coming down those almighty dunes, it has to have been some of the most exhilarating driving I have ever done, and the Car just ate it up.

Made up of over 1000 dunes running North - South, The desert is a unique experience to say the least, and our destination was pretty well smack bang in the middle of it all.

Poeppel Corner

Corner of Queensland, Northern Territory and South Australia

We got to Poeppel Corner around Three thirty in the afternoon of the 26th of August, took some photos and made our way back toward or camp somewhere within the Desert on the way back to Birdsville. About 400 dunes there and a few hundred more on the way back, we set up camp at six o’clock that night and were treated again to another of the Desert’s gems. A sunset over the dunes.

Our final day in the desert, we set off at the crack of dawn to try and make as much use of the Sun being below the crest of the dunes as possible. It was only a short drive back to Eyre Creek, before finally arriving back at Birdsville getting in at around Eleven o’clock that morning.

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Corner Country and The Simpson Desert