Just read that the Simpson Desert is to be closed to tourists between December and March.Apparently public safety is behind the decision.Maybe one of the more knowlable G/n's will have more info.Cheers Ibbo.

I had heard a rumour to that effect but havent got any info as to whether they have done it or not. but if it happens I am not surprised. people go in tottally unprepared

Back again.Google has all the latest info.Cheers ibbo.

hmmmm!!! well yep you are right she's closed between november and february according to the website, cant say I'm all that surprised, we shot up there in october of '81 if my memory serves me correctly and we struck a couple of days nudging past 45 deg., great trip, could be deadly without being prepared

Gee,Dave,starting to think that I should park the Penguin in my backyard,North floods,Crocks,Gulflanders.South Victorians,further south vineyards and filthy wine tasting.Still looking forwards to picking up our Penguin on friday.Cheers Ibbo.

The need for trip preparation goes for any trip outside your comfort zone and deserts are definitely out there . Unfortunately those driving the Torak Tractors get a bee in their bonnet to go do it in the dirt and when they come to grief it all hits the fan. See them heading out with a couple of bottles of spring water and bugger all spare parts for the tractor .

mate the day I park the camper and not risk my cleanliness or comfort chasing the northern floods or crocs or gulflanders and, god forbid, WINE tasting, is the day I'll roll up and they can burn me and scatter me in some rainforest somewhere my best memories are when we were stuck on the side of some flooded causeway or battling my way up a sand dune that wont give me traction, or battling through overgrown forest to get to some remote waterfall that is so far out of the way that I felt as if I found it I've been up to the axles in mud and you couldnt get the grin off my face, some places took us three days to dig and inch our way out of mudholes or sandy patches, but when we reached our goal, well some of our best beers were right there and then I think I was born at the wrong time, I reckon I would have been a happy little vegimite on the bourke and wills expidition or something similar I dont say that everyone should do what we did but all I'm saying is. get out there and go, once you're dead you're dead a helluva long time, 200 kms down the track is a whole new world, east, west, south or north all good destinations dont have to go far, just go!!! however those victorians, now thats a whole new set of problems in itself!!!! never did work out how to get around those problems

just read the front page article about this very thing ( shhhhh!!!!!! dont look now but I think we are being watched!!!) 

anyway, arent we so very lucky to have the government gestapo watching over us, telling us where we can go and when we can go there,
 
now that they have a system of locking the desert the next thing will be a surcharge to enter our sacred sites apart from the desert pass requirements

now I dont know whether anybody has been listening, but I have said on many occasions in many threads before this one that PREPERATION is the key to survival, fail to prepare then prepare to fail, to close off a desert from an estimated 35 people a year, none of which have died as yet to my knowledge in the 150 million years that it has been open, is to me a load of cods wallop and government madness
 
the dukes highway killed swags of people last year, the southern freeway killed heaps, 15 murders in adelaide streets alone this year. 

GIVE ME THE BLOODY DESERT, IT"S A HELL OF A LOT SAFER!!!!! 

you bloody interfering moronic drongoes, dont close off our relaxation areas because someone MIGHT get hurt
 
get out of your office and in to the real world. our highways and bi-ways are far more dangerous than any deserts I have travelled, and at last count that is most of them in aust. apart from central western australia, even if we lose 10% of ALL travellers in one year in the simpson that would be 3.5 persons 

do your sums people, heaps on the dukes and climbing every year, bloody hell close it quick!!!!!!!  put it in perspective, 

stop these kneejerk reactions because something might happen, that logic is total crap and more laws that we dont need, I will make a decision as to whether it is dangerous or not, not some little dweeb who has never been out of canberra

if some ill prepared drongoe heads out in his 4wd, trying to make an excuse for having the fuel guzzling tank, that he use to take the kiddies to school and is not desert ready then he and fools like him deserve to die

the risks are the same as when you decide to overtake on the highway, or whether you decide to cross the road (statistically far more dangerous than crossing the simpson)

just as an afterthought, more kiddies are run over by reversing 4wd's in their home driveway than are stranded and die in all of australias deserts, now we really should do something about them damnable driveways, they are killing our kids. better block them off and charge people to enter them

-- Edited by dave06 at 11:33, 2008-11-13

 Possible reason for the closure  they may be still looking for this guy  out there