Birdsville track closure strands about 100 tourists at Mungerannie

Days of outback rain have left Birdsville Track travellers marooned at Mungerannie with one man preparing to go to extreme lengths to get out fast.

Around 100 outback tourists, most on their way to the Big Red Bash concert at Birdsville, are stranded in the tiny South Australian outpost of Mungerannie after three days of rain turned the region into a mud pit.

The rain, which began on Monday and continued through until Wednesday, dropped around 50ml on the area and closed the iconic Birdsville Track.

Mungerannie Hotel publican Andrew Norman said around 30 vehicles were camped out at the pub, waiting for the track to reopen.

“Thank God for Starlink,” Mr Norman said, referring to the satellite internet service now available in the Australian outback.

“That’s been the saviour for everybody. The kids are just sitting around and watching movies because you can’t even walk around, it’s that muddy.

“But it’s just a case of sitting back and smell the roses and wait. Everyone’s pretty all right about it.”

Four-wheel-drives waiting out the rain at Mungerannie Hotel. Picture: Facebook

Everyone, he said, except for a motorcyclist named Leon who has a date he’s not prepared to miss.

“Leon has to get to his son’s wedding in Cairns next week, so he’s flipping out a bit,” Mr Norman said.

“He’s looking into chartering a helicopter from the station next door so he can get to a runway and catch a plane. He’s not going to miss his son’s wedding.”

Mr Norman said the weather today was dry and sunny, and expected that the track would be open by Saturday, giving travellers time to make it to the Bash to see the likes of Ice House, Hoodoo Gurus, Pete Murray and Kate Ceberano.

Map showing outback road closures in red.

Which is good news because, ironically, the water is preventing the hotel from collecting … water.

Due to an ongoing dispute with the neighbouring station the pub is cut off from its water supply and has to cart the precious resource in.

“We’ve got about 20 days of water in the tank at the moment, so we’re fine at the moment,” Mr Norman said.

A spokeswoman for the Birdsville Big Red Bash said festival organisers expected that everyone travelling to the concert would get through, even if they had to take detours.

She said the Bash’s Facebook page and app were providing regular weather and road closure information for travellers.

William Creek publican and pilot Trevor Wright said the outback town had also received around 50ml of rain.

“It (the rain) will put more water into the Lake Eyre, and from a tourism perspective and I think it will also freshen up the environment,” Mr Wright said.

“We’ll start to see a lot of wildflowers out there because it was really not a heavy, quick rain, it was more of a soaking rain, so that’s been one of the good values of it.”

Information on outback road closures can be found at dit.sa.gov.au/OutbackRoads