B-LINE FOR BIRDSVILLE

This page is under construction. There are design changes that should speed up the delivery of text and images. Please note the email address for the editor will change during the period of construction as well. Urgent enquirers are encouraged to call me on my mobile (0415 260 221) until the updates are completed.

The URL address also may change during this time although the site will be painlessly linked when that happens. Your patronage and consideration over the years is valued and I hope you continue browsing through my stories about the opening up of the Simpson Desert to every-day travellers. Contributions are welcomed. Please expect that it will take some more time for me to place and upload the recent material kindly provided by Simpson Desert old hands and admirers.

Click on the photo of Reg Sprigg to enlarge it. Reg and his family were the first to drive across the Simpson Desert in 1962 (rs1248.jpg).

REG SPRIGG
FIRST DRIVER
IN THE DESERT

DESERT DIGEST

Cashbook and Claypan
Share in the tribulations of the admin manager as he balances the books from his Office-in-a-Blitz

Birdsville or Bust
Learn how French know-how and Australian muscle carved the French Line through the Simpson

East From Oodna
Marvel at the initiative of the early pathfinders who solved the mysteries of the Red Centre

Alive in the Dead Heart
Recollections from the crew who first burst the road through Australia's One True Desert

B-line for Birdsville
Join the CGG veterans on their return journeys to the French Line. Take their tip and travel with experts

(Under Construction)

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Back Again in 2003

Few Veterans Return for the 40th

French Line 40th Anniversary - Successful Return 2003

On 7th July, 2003 I joined one of the country's leading tag-along tour operators, Vic Widman and his company Great Divide Tours on an epic journey across the Simpson Desert, commemorating the 40th anniversary year of my party's construction of the French Line across the Simpson Desert.

Another on-the-ground veteran, John Blaney-Murphy, crossed that year after me. Our pilot, Kron Nicholas also did a return pilgrimage to the wastes he had countered so well in the old days - he with wingtip and wheeltouch as it was back then. It is not so fanciful to imagine he reckons over-the-top is best. All the same, as the years roll by, there will be less and less opportunities to go across for the blokes that opened up the pathway. Age wearies, and many of my old mates in the original party of 45 have lost the spark to go again, so they say. Not yet, say I.

LINK TO THESE DIGESTS FROM THIS PAGE

Share in the tribulations of the admin manager as he balances the books from his Office-in-a-Blitz. Click on the caption to go directly to the story. Learn how French know-how and Australian muscle carved the French Line through the Simpson. Click on the caption to go directly to the story. Marvel at the initiative of the early pathfinders who solved the mysteries of the Red Centre. Click on the caption to go directly to the story. Recollections from the crew who first burst the road through Australia's One True Desert. Click on the caption to go directly to the story. Join the CGG veterans on their return journeys to the French Line. Take their tip and travel with experts. Under Construction. Only the super-inquisitive should click the caption.

Cashbook and
Claypan Birdsville
or Bust East from
Oodna Alive in the
Dead Heart B-Line for
Birdsville

GONE TO MOTHBALLS .....	Thommo's Desert Report - Part A	The BeeGees Page
	Thommo's Desert Report - Part B	The Kid From Towra Point
	Bulldozing a Desert	Trans National Causeway
	Signwriter for the Simpson	The Long Haul
	Simpson Desert Birdlife	French Line Circa 1979

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Cashbook and Claypan	Birdsville or Bust	East from Oodna	Alive in the Dead Heart	B-Line for Birdsville