Cooper Creek In Flood At Innamincka Causeway

We’d just finished volunteering at Wild Deserts, in Sturt National Park NSW near Cameron Corner.

Peta, myself and another volunteer Sho decided to jump in the truck and do a quick lap to Innamincka. Why? Well for the second time in 2 years, Cooper Creek was in flood. We’d seen last year’s flood in Cooper Creek and wanted to see this incredible spectacle again.

The Cooper Creek in flood, upstream of the causeway at Innamincka, SA. — Cooper Creek in flood, looking upstream from the causeway at Innamincka.

Oh, and Sho was pretty keen to tick Innamincka off her list of places to see!

So the three of us piled into the truck for a quick 500km day trip.

Record Floods

Record rains smashed north-western Queensland in early February this year. Sadly, around half a million cattle perished in the flood. They drowned, became stuck in mud, died of cold due to torrential rains and strong winds or a combination of all three.

Fortunately for those downstream in the Eyre Basin, these extraordinary rains meant the water was on its way. Graziers along the Diamantina were finally seeing some moisture in the soil and that rare sight… green grass!

And Cooper Creek didn’t miss out either. And this is what we wanted to see.

A Dry Flood At Innamincka

Dry floods are weird. It takes a while to realise just how far this water has travelled to get here. Every crack in the ground, depression, billabong, wetland and water course has to slowly fill before the water moves on.

And this time, at least some of the water we saw will flow into Kati Thanda – Lake Eyre.

Even better, since we made this journey Innamincka itself has had a bit of rain. Hopefully they’ll get some green grass… at least for a short while.

And with the secondary flow Peta mentioned in the video, by mid- May the white guide posts you see in the video had all but disappeared under the water!

We’re so glad we made the effort to see this again. Twice in two years, wow! If you ever get the chance, get out and see one of these ephemeral river systems in flood. You’ll never forget it.

P.S. We camped on Cooper Creek near Windorah and saw the lush green grass across the floodplain. Go here for more details.

Innamincka is on Yawarawarka Country.