The signpost for the Oodnadatta Track and Birdsville Track near Marree

Marree (including Lake Eyre)
Famous outback town near the vast Lake Eyre
Located 685 km north of Adelaide, 79 km (by dirt road) from Lyndhurst and only 49 m above sea level, Marree is a fascinating old settlement on the edge of the vast desert area of Central Australia. It is a true desert settlement receiving an average annual rainfall of only 155 mm.

The area around Marree was first explored by Europeans when, in 1840, Edward John Eyre travelled north from Spencer Gulf and reached the southern shores of Lake Eyre South. In 1859 John McDouall Stuart entered the area and it was his assistant Herrgott who discovered the mound springs after which the early town took its name - although somewhere along the way poor Herrgott lost an 'r' and the settlement became Hergott Springs.

Hergott Springs camp was established in 1872 for the maintenance workers on the Overland Telegraph Line. The camp soon grew into an outpost for all expeditions heading north and eventually the famous Afghan camel drivers established a base at the settlement from which they headed off to such outlying centres as Oodnadatta, Birdsville and Alice Springs.

The camp became an official town in 1883 when the railway reached it. It was named Marree, a word which is supposed to mean 'place of possums' in the language of the local Aborigines. There is some doubt about this interpretation as there are few possums in the region and the local word for possum is 'bilda'.

The town continued to be called Hergott Springs until 1918 when, in the wake of World War 1 anti-German feeling, the railway station sign and the post office were both changed to Marree. This time the name stuck.

Things to see:  

1939 Simpson Desert Expedition Memorial
Near the town's solitary pub is a white plaque commemorating the Simpson Desert expedition of 1939 in which Cecil T. Madigan and his party crossed the harsh dry region to the north of the town.

Tom Cruise's famous Royal Mail Truck in the Museum Park at Marree

Museum Park
In Museum Park, in the centre of town beside the old railway line, is the famous old mail truck which Tom Kruse used to transport mail from Marree to Birdsville along the Birdsville track. Kruse's adventures were superbly captured in the 1952 documentary Back of Beyond which chronicled the hardships and ingenuity involved in taking mail and supplies across a desert prone to flooding, being bogged in sand dunes and breaking down hundreds of kilometres from any kind of garage service. Interestingly the old truck has E. G. Kruse on the side and no one in town seems to know where the name 'Tom' came from.

On the northeastern side of town there is a plaque dedicated to the 'memory of the mail contractors of the Birdsville Track. 1886-1975. The real pioneers.'

The town's demise occurred in 1980 when the railway was closed. There is something sad and rather forlorn about the rolling stock which stand at the disused station slowly rusting away.

A derelict corrugated iron house in Marree

Driving Around the Town
It is worth driving around Marree to feel the extraordinary loneliness and isolation of the town. There are derelict old corrugated iron houses and wide streets disappearing into the desert which encroaches on every side.

The settlement today still recalls the poem 'Marree' which opened:

Oh the corrugated-iron town
In the corrugated-iron air
Where the shimmering heat-waves glare
To the red-hot iron plain
And the steel mirage beyond

Lake Eyre
To the north of Marree is Lake Eyre, Australia's most famous inland lake. It is located in an area which receives an annual rainfall of less than 125 mm per annum and yet it drains an area of central and northeastern Australia which covers about 1.3 million sq km - or one sixth of the continent.

The first European to see Lake Eyre was the explorer Edward John Eyre who reached Lake Eyre South in 1840. He thought it was part of Lake Torrens. The surveyor, G. W. Goyder, who mapped the area in 1860, named the lake after Eyre.

Known as the most arid area on the continent the lake commonly records temperatures in excess of 50°C in summer and has been known to reach the extraordinary temperature of 61°C. The lake, recognised as the largest salt pan in the world, is actually divided into two - Lake Eyre North and Lake Eyre South - by the 13 km Goyder Channel. It has only filled three times in the last hundred years - 1945-50, 1974 and 1990 - and each time it does it becomes a haven to a rich variety of wildlife.

There is evidence that it was three times its current size (it really was Sturt's mysterious inland sea) about 30-40 000 years ago. Much of it lies below sea level and it is estimated that it has salt deposits exceeding 500 million tonnes.

Lake Eyre North lies 90 km north of Marree and the Oodnadatta Track passes close to Lake Eyre South at a number of points. The lake achieved certain modern fame in 1964 when Sir Donald Campbell set a world land speed record of 645 km/h on it in his famous jet propelled 'Bluebird'.

Birdsville Track
Heading directly north from Marree is the famous Birdsville Track which covers a distance of 517 km across such infamous arid regions at Simpsons Desert and Sturts Stony Desert. It was developed in the 1880s as a stock route and has since become popular with 4WD enthusiasts as it crosses some of the most arid and isolated territory in Australia.

The most detailed and comprehensive map of the Birdsville Track appeared in Australian Geographic Issue 12 - Oct-Dec 1988. There is an excellent book Marree and the tracks beyond in black and white by Lois Litchfield which is an articulate and comprehensive history of the whole region.

	Hotels
	Marree Hotel town centre Marree SA 5733 Telephone: (08) 8675 8344
	Cottages & Cabins
	Copley Caravan Park Railway Tce Copley Marree SA 5732 Telephone: (08) 8675 2288 Facsimile: (08) 8675 2288 Rating: **1/2
	Marree Drover's Rest Tourist Park Cnr Birdsville & Oodnadatta Tracks P.O. Box 2 Marree SA 5733 Telephone: (08) 8675 8371 Facsimile: (08) 8675 8206 Rating: ***
	Caravan Parks
	Copley Caravan Park Railway Tce Copley Marree SA 5732 Telephone: (08) 8675 2288 Facsimile: (08) 8675 2288 Rating: ***
	Marree Drover's Rest Tourist Park Cnr Birdsville & Oodnadatta Tracks P.O. Box 2 Marree SA 5733 Telephone: (08) 8675 8371 Facsimile: (08) 8675 8206
	Oasis Town Centre Caravan Park Railway Tce South Marree SA 5733 Telephone: (08) 8675 8352
	Restaurants
	Marree Hotel town centre Marree SA 5733 Telephone: (08) 8675 8344