Munga-Thirri–Simpson Desert National Park

Open dai­ly.

Munga-Thirri – Simp­son Desert Nation­al Park is closed from 1 Decem­ber to 15 March each year.

Access may be restrict­ed due to local road con­di­tions. Please refer to the lat­est Desert Parks Bul­letin for cur­rent access and road con­di­tion information.

Clo­sures and safety

This park is closed on days of Cat­a­stroph­ic Fire Dan­ger and may also be closed on days of Extreme Fire Danger.

You can deter­mine the cur­rent fire dan­ger rat­ing by check­ing the Fire Ban Dis­trict map on the CFS website.

Check the CFS web­site or call the CFS Bush­fire Infor­ma­tion Hot­line 1800 362 361 for:

• Infor­ma­tion on fire bans and cur­rent fire conditions
• Cur­rent CFS warn­ings and incidents
• Infor­ma­tion on what to do in the event of a fire.

Lis­ten to your local area radio sta­tion for the lat­est updates and infor­ma­tion on fire safety.

Vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion, book­ings and park management:

Port Augus­ta Nation­al Parks Wildlife Ser­vice South Aus­tralia office

Phone: (+61 8) 8648 5300
Email: desertparks@​sa.​gov.​au

Emer­gency contacts:

Med­ical, fire (includ­ing bush­fire) and police emer­gency sit­u­a­tions
Phone: Triple Zero — 000

Police Assis­tance
Phone: 131 444 for non-urgent police assistance

Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice SA – After-hours duty offi­cer
Phone:0408 378 284

Injured wildlife:

With­in the park
Please con­tact Port Augus­ta Nation­al Parks Wildlife Ser­vice South Aus­tralia office on (08) 8648 5300 or the after-hours duty offi­cer on 0408 378 284.

Out­side of the park
Please con­tact a local wildlife res­cue group.

Desert Park Pass

Head­ing to the out­back? Pur­chase a Desert Parks Pass which enti­tles you to 12 months vehi­cle entry into sev­en desert parks. 

The pass also allows you to camp for peri­ods of up to 21 nights at a time in the desert parks (exclud­ing Wab­ma Kadar­bu Mound Springs Con­ser­va­tion Park, where camp­ing is not permitted). 

The Desert Parks Pass is manda­to­ry if you’re plan­ning to trav­el into Munga-Thirri – Simp­son Desert Park or are trav­el­ling east of Dal­housie Springs in Witji­ra Nation­al Park. Day vehi­cle entry and camp­ing is avail­able for all oth­er Desert Parks. 

• Buy a Desert Parks Pass now
• Buy a Desert Parks Pass in person
• Park Pass FAQs

The most enjoy­able times to vis­it the Simp­son Desert are autumn, win­ter and spring. Munga-Thirri – Simp­son Desert Nation­al Park is closed annu­al­ly between 1 Decem­ber and 15 March. This clo­sure is to ensure pub­lic safe­ty as tem­per­a­tures can exceed 50 degrees. A break­down dur­ing this time could be fatal.

Munga-Thirri – Simp­son Desert Nation­al Park is locat­ed 957 km north of Port Augus­ta. Access may be restrict­ed due to local road con­di­tions. Please refer to the latest

It is acces­si­ble via the fol­low­ing routes:

From Kul­gera: Trav­el via Finke to New Crown Sta­tion, then via Char­lotte Waters to Mount Dare Home­stead in Witji­ra Nation­al Park, through Dal­housie Springs and Spring Creek to Purni Bore.

From Ood­na­dat­ta: Trav­el via Hamil­ton Sta­tion and Dal­housie Springs, Spring Creek then Purni Bore.

From Birdsville: Enter via the QAA line to Poep­pel Cor­ner. Depend­ing on the road con­di­tions, the 160 km jour­ney from Birdsville to Poep­pel Cor­ner may take you 6 to 8 hours as it trav­els over some of the biggest sand dunes in the desert. Allow plen­ty of time. Trav­el via the Shire road which leaves the inside Birdsville Track just south­west of Birdsville. This joins the QAA Line at Big Red sand dune 33km from Birdsville and heads west into the park.

If you are trav­el­ling through this area for the first time, it is rec­om­mend­ed that you cross the reserves from west to east to take advan­tage of the gen­tler upsweep to most dunes. Reserves of fuel, water and food, as well as basic vehi­cle spare parts and recov­ery equip­ment, must be carried.

You can also access the park from the north via the Hay Riv­er Track in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry to Poep­pel Cor­ner, or the Col­son Track to the French Line with per­mis­sion from Cen­tral Land Coun­cil at Per­mits — Cen­tral Land Coun­cil (clc​.org​.au).

• Park map

Assis­tance dogs are per­mit­ted in most pub­lic places and are there­fore wel­come in South Australia’s parks and reserves. Assis­tance dogs must be appro­pri­ate­ly restrained on a lead and remain under your effec­tive con­trol at all times while in a park or reserve.

As per the dogs in parks and reserves pol­i­cy, if the dog is not an accred­it­ed assis­tance dog, they must be trained to assist a per­son with a dis­abil­i­ty to alle­vi­ate that dis­abil­i­ty and meet stan­dards of hygiene and behav­iour appro­pri­ate for a dog in a pub­lic place. How­ev­er, refusal may be giv­en if the per­son with the dis­abil­i­ty is unable to pro­duce evi­dence the dog is an assis­tance dog with the appro­pri­ate training.

Before tak­ing your assis­tance dog into a park that does not nor­mal­ly allow dogs, it is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed that you con­tact us so we can pro­vide you with the lat­est infor­ma­tion on any poten­tial haz­ards with­in spe­cif­ic parks that may affect your dog. Please con­tact the park via the con­tact details pro­vid­ed under the con­tact tab or con­tact the vis­i­tor ser­vice cen­tre via email.

Dogs are not per­mit­ted in this park.

Dis­cov­er which parks you can walk your dog in on our find a park tool or read 12 dog-friend­ly walks in Ade­laide Parks by Good Liv­ing for inspiration.

The only ser­vices avail­able between Ood­na­dat­ta and Birdsville are at Mount Dare in Witji­ra Nation­al Park.

Plants

On the crests of the sand dunes small grass­es and herbs, such as sand hill cane-grass thrive, while on the more sta­ble sands tri­o­dia species like lobed spinifex and oth­er small grass­es and shrubs dom­i­nate. These spinifex tus­socks can often grow to form large donut-like shapes as the cen­tre of the plant dies out, while new growth con­tin­ues at the out­er edges.

Desert veg­e­ta­tion depends on sea­son­al con­di­tions. Many plants have short life cycles, grow­ing, flow­er­ing and set­ting seeds with­in a cou­ple of months of rain. After rain the sand dunes can become cov­ered in a ver­i­ta­ble car­pet of wild­flow­ers, as the long dor­mant seeds of poached-egg daisies and fleshy ground­sel spring into life.

The swales between the sand dunes col­lect more water and nutri­ents than the sand dunes and so can sup­port larg­er shrubs such as ere­mophi­la, gre­vil­lea and aca­cias like mul­ga and gidgee – par­tic­u­lar­ly around Poep­pel Cor­ner where low open wood­lands of gidgee spread out to the hori­zon. The playa lakes in these swales also sup­port small clumps of salt-tol­er­ant sam­phire and oth­er herba­ceous plants around their periphery. 

Ani­mals

More than 150 species of birds inhab­it the Simp­son Desert. Com­mon birds include crest­ed pigeons and zebra finch­es, while galahs and corel­las are often seen con­gre­gat­ing away from the mid­day sun in a tree over­look­ing a water­hole. The desert is home to sev­er­al species of birds of prey such as the mighty wedge-tailed eagle (often seen soar­ing on the desert ther­mals), as well as black kites, nan­keen kestrels and brown falcons.

Look care­ful­ly for the eyre­an grass­wren on the slopes of sand dunes, scur­ry­ing from one sand­hill cane­grass clump to anoth­er. Fol­low­ing a good sea­son, the Simp­son Desert can become a birdwatcher’s par­adise as flocks of birds arrive to take advan­tage of the water and abun­dant food, par­tic­u­lar­ly around the playa lakes and tem­po­rary water­holes. Watch out for water­birds, chats and the rare Aus­tralian Bus­tard. To escape the sear­ing heat of the day, many of the Simp­son Desert’s mam­mal inhab­i­tants only come out at night. Small mar­su­pi­als includ­ing dun­narts and ampur­ta come out to feast on insects, while Din­goes are out search­ing for big­ger prey such as rab­bits. If you’ve got a good field guide handy, try to iden­ti­fy the dif­fer­ent tracks on the sand dunes in the morn­ing. The desert is also home to fer­al ani­mals includ­ing rab­bits, camels and foxes.

As you dri­ve, remain on the look­out for some of the rep­til­ian inhab­i­tants of the desert. Aus­trali­a’s biggest lizard, the per­en­tie, can be found out here as well as the more com­mon sand goan­na. paint­ed and cen­tral beard­ed drag­ons can be found sun­ning them­selves next to the track, while the desert python (the woma) and small­er beaked geck­os and desert skinks may be seen if you take the time to look.

Flo­ra and fau­na species lists

To down­load flo­ra (plants) and fau­na (ani­mals) species lists for this park, use the ​‘Cre­ate Sim­ple Species List’ tab under ​‘Flo­ra Tools’ or ​‘Fau­na Tools’ in NatureMaps.

• A Desert Parks Pass is required to enter and camp in Munga-Thirri – Simp­son Desert Nation­al Park
• Desert Parks Bulletin 
• Desert Parks of South Aus­tralia brochure
• Down­load the Ood­na­dat­ta Track vis­i­tor brochure and the Birdsville and Strz­elec­ki vis­i­tor brochure.
• Remote area trav­el information
• Parks man­age­ment plans

Out­back Road Report

1300 361 033 (24-hour auto­mat­ed ser­vice)
North­ern and West­ern South Aus­tralian Out­back Roads Tem­po­rary Clo­sures, Restric­tions and Warn­ings Report

• Impor­tant: Col­lec­tion of fire­wood with­in nation­al parks is pro­hib­it­ed. Dead wood plays a vital role in pro­vid­ing shel­ter for ani­mals and adding nutri­ents to the soil.

In the 19^th cen­tu­ry, most Simp­son Desert Abo­rig­i­nal groups were con­cen­trat­ed around the water­cours­es on the desert bound­aries. Pri­or to this time, the Wangkan­gur­ru actu­al­ly lived in the desert; and to the west of their tra­di­tion­al bound­ary the Low­er South­ern Arrernte lived on the edge and part­ly in the desert. Fam­i­ly groups were gen­er­al­ly con­cen­trat­ed around native wells, or ​‘Mikiri’ which pro­vid­ed the only per­ma­nent source of water.

In good sea­sons, they could spread out away from these sites, tak­ing advan­tage of ground­wa­ter and the flush of new life that rain brings to the desert.

Abo­rig­i­nal groups liv­ing in this area were hunters and gath­er­ers, but they also trad­ed exten­sive­ly with groups to the north and south. Ground-edge axes from quar­ries in Queens­land were trad­ed, as were sand­stone grind­ing stones and ochre from the North Flinders Ranges. Some stone imple­ments and work­ings can be seen in the park, but are not com­mon. All Abo­rig­i­nal sites are pro­tect­ed, so please do not dis­turb them.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples have occu­pied, enjoyed and man­aged the lands and waters of this State for thou­sands of gen­er­a­tions. For Abo­rig­i­nal first nations, cre­ation ances­tors laid down the laws of the Coun­try and bestowed a range of cus­tom­ary rights and oblig­a­tions to the many Abo­rig­i­nal Nations across our state. 

There are many places across the State that have great spir­i­tu­al sig­nif­i­cance to Abo­rig­i­nal first nations. At some of these places Abo­rig­i­nal cul­tur­al pro­to­cols, such as restrict­ed access, are pro­mot­ed and vis­i­tors are asked to respect the wish­es of Tra­di­tion­al Owners.

In places where pro­to­cols are not pro­mot­ed vis­i­tors are asked to show respect by not touch­ing or remov­ing any­thing, and make sure you take all your rub­bish with you when you leave.

Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples con­tin­ue to play an active role in car­ing for their Coun­try, includ­ing in parks across South Australia. 

• DEW Park management
• DEW Abo­rig­i­nal partnerships

Euro­pean set­tle­ment brought about the decline of Abo­rig­i­nal occu­pa­tion of the desert. White set­tlers intro­duced influen­za to the Abo­rig­i­nal groups, dec­i­mat­ing the pop­u­la­tion. Groups were dis­placed as pas­toral prop­er­ties took over their land, while oth­er Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple were attract­ed to work on prop­er­ties and to towns and communities.

The first Euro­pean to see the grandeur of the Simp­son Desert was the explor­er Charles Sturt in 1845, but the desert was not ful­ly recog­nised and named until the 1930s when anoth­er explor­er and geol­o­gist, Cecil Thomas Madi­gan, named it after Allen Simp­son, the spon­sor of his sub­se­quent expe­di­tion and then pres­i­dent of the Roy­al Geo­graph­i­cal Soci­ety of Aus­trala­sia (South Aus­tralian Branch). The explor­ers who came after Sturt, main­ly gov­ern­ment sur­vey­ors, named a num­ber of the famil­iar land­marks in the area. 

Notable among the ear­ly sur­vey­ors was Augus­tus Poep­pel who sur­veyed the junc­tion of the bor­ders of North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry, Queens­land and South Aus­tralia in 1880. The orig­i­nal peg mark­ing Poep­pel Cor­ner was removed to Ade­laide for preser­va­tion in 1962 by Dr Reg Sprigg and now forms part of the His­to­ry Trust of South Aus­trali­a’s His­toric Relics Col­lec­tion. On 25 August 1968, Bill Hay­lock of the SA Geo­det­ic Sur­vey placed the cur­rent steel and con­crete post to mark Poep­pel Cor­ner. In 1989, the Friends of the Simp­son Desert Parks erect­ed a red gum repli­ca of the orig­i­nal peg near the cor­ner post.

The first suc­cess­ful Euro­pean cross­ing of the desert was in 1936 and is cred­it­ed to E. A. Col­son, who, with Peter Ains (an Abo­rig­i­nal com­pan­ion) and five camels, trav­elled from Mount Etingam­bra east­wards via Poep­pel Cor­ner to Birdsville. Geol­o­gist Reg Sprigg and his fam­i­ly com­plet­ed the first motorised cross­ing in 1962, with Dr Sprigg’s Geo­sur­veys of Aus­tralia company. 

In 1936, the French Petro­le­um Com­pa­ny was con­tract­ed to con­duct seis­mic sur­veys and explore for oil and gas deposits. These work­ers spent months at a time in the desert, build­ing what are now known as the French and QAA lines, Rig Road and oth­er tracks, thus open­ing up the desert for oth­er explor­ers, pas­toral­ists and tourists to follow.

The Munga-Thirri – Simp­son Desert Con­ser­va­tion Park was orig­i­nal­ly pro­claimed as a nation­al park in 1967, but changed to con­ser­va­tion park clas­si­fi­ca­tion in 1972. The region­al reserve was estab­lished in 1988, link­ing the con­ser­va­tion park with Witji­ra Nation­al Park. In 2021, the con­ser­va­tion park and region­al reserve were com­bined and reclas­si­fied to become Munga-Thirri – Simp­son Desert Nation­al Park. The enor­mous size of the park (3.6 mil­lion hectares) allows a wide cross-sec­tion of diverse flo­ra, fau­na and sand ridge for­ma­tions to be protected.