I spent a couple of relaxing days in Alice Springs, which is a town I like, despite the social problems that it faces. Stocking up on food and fuel, I headed out on the last leg of Binns Track towards the Simpson Desert, to visit a station homestead called Old Andado.
Last time I had driven this track it was in 2016 and it had rained heavily prior to that trip. Then, the surrounding country was lush and green, an amazing sight in a desert. The road was also quite boggy. This time, the country was very different, as it hasn’t rained here for over nine months. As a consequence, the road is now mostly comprised of good old ‘bull-dust’.
Bull-dust is really, really fine dust that accumulates on dirt roads. It is really hard to see as it just looks like the rest of the road. It is like talcum powder and when you hit a patch, great boiling clouds of red dust explode around you. It can make driving very unpredictable. Hitting a bull-dust patch can kick a tyre off the rim and it can even bog a vehicle completely if it is deep enough! I had a few hairy moments slipping and sliding through this extremely fine powder.
Unfortunately, bull-dust also gets everywhere and the car and the camper interiors are all now covered in very fine red dust. Everything is gritty to the touch! And it gets in your mouth too; it is really horrible when it crunches between your teeth – YUK!
Despite the bull-dust, I do like this part of the trip. You actually drive between the stunning red sand dunes on the western side of the Simpson Desert. It is quite amazing being confronted by these exotic dunes, which makes you feel you are in a very mysterious ‘Arabian Nights’ setting. There are beautiful eagles and sometimes even camels around to add to that illusion.
Old Andado is an amazing place to visit. Once the home of Molly Clarke and her family, the homestead shows just how unforgiving outback life could be.
She and her husband Mac Clarke ran Andado Station, a vast property bordering the Simpson Desert to the east, from 1949. Accidents took the lives of Mac and one of her sons in the space of a year. Molly then ran the property on her own until disease was discovered in the cattle and the government ordered them all destroyed.
Facing bankruptcy, Molly had to sell the station. But she was one tough lady and was able to claw her way back and purchased 45 square kilometres of the property which included her beloved home. This has since been referred to as “Old Andado”.
The homestead is an amazing time capsule; entering the house seemingly transports you back in time to the 1950s.
The house sits in the dale between sand ridges and is built of corrugated iron.
The walls are held up by wood sourced from the surrounding desert. This wood is so hard it can’t be nailed, so the house is actually held together with wire!
Molly has since passed away but her presence is still extant in the old homestead. She is buried near her house, in the country she loved so much.
I was the only one spending the night near the homestead and the next day I headed south on the last little bit of the Binns Track to Mount Dare Hotel, about 100kms away.
Mount Dare is over the border in SA. Really, its only distinction is that it probably has the most expensive fuel in Australia – $2.50 per litre for diesel.
I had now left the Northern Territory, where I had enjoyed travelling for the last few months.
Arriving at Mount Dare brought me to the end of the 2,200km Binns Track. I had now completed one of those great driving adventures that takes you into country that you normally wouldn’t see from the main road. It is a long, tough and dusty drive but it was a great experience and I am certainly glad I did it!
