Crossing the Dead Heart by C.T. Madigan
Melbourne: Georgian House, 1946 (1948 reprint)
As the author states in the first lines of the Preface, "This book is a popular narrative of the Simpson Desert Expedition, 1939." And it's quite a good read. Cecil Madigan had spent quite a bit of time in the country skirting the Simpson Desert, and had even organised to fly over it in an airplane in 1929. He had longed to cross what was to the white man (and quite possibly the black) untracked country, and when A.A. Simpson, former president of the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (and the person who's name has been given to the desert) offered to fund a crossing, Madigan jumped at the chance.
1939 was a propitious year for an attempt, as it was particularly wet in the Eyre Basin area. It's ironic that a description of crossing one of Australia's harshest deserts is beset with descriptions of bogs and cold weather, but that was the truth of it during this winter crossing. The aim of the Expedition was to be the first to cross the Simpson, taking note of the geography, botany and fauna of this extremely remote area of Australia.
As we now know the Simpson desert is covered in huge sand dunes that run parallel with each other for hundreds of kilometres. Any crossing from East to West requires the explorers to cross over these dunes, which is a tiring and sometimes dangerous task. The expedition travelled with camels, which in 1939 was the only feasible way to go. Travel by camel is slow, but steady, and, depending on how many dunes needed crossing, the group did not travel huge distances each day - it took approximately two weeks to cross the Simpson, although to get the camels back to Marree took the best part of another month, travelling down the Diamantina River and alongside the Eastern shores of Lake Eyre.
For me, it was the descriptions of the Channel Country that were more interesting than the crossing of the Desert itself. To read about so many deserted cattle and sheep stations was an insight into how this country can fool the traveller: if you arrive during a wetter season, as opposed to the usual drier ones, you might be convinced that you can run a decent amount of stock over the country, which of course is not the case.
This is, of course, a book of its time. Many birds are shot for food, or killed to be taken back to be studied. There are no women on the expedition. The Aboriginals are treated as novelties, although highly valued for their skills, and their stories about the country.
That stated, for those of us who haven't been to or traversed this country, this book gives a good description of the desert itself, travelling by camel (the wet weather didn't help - camels don't like damp or muddy going), how (white) people lived out in this country, as well as vignettes about way-finding and water supply (there is a lot of information about water, as you would imagine - Madigan writes a lot about the quality of the water across their journey, and in an informative and useful appendix, discusses in detail the variability of rainfall across the Eyre Basin and the inability of the country to provide permanent feed for stock).
Nowadays of course, many people have traversed the Simpson. Even with motor vehicles it's still a tough trek, although it can now be measured in days rather than weeks. One day, maybe, I'll do it, and see with my own eyes what Madigan describes in this book.
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