Bedourie residents are looking forward to having icecream back on their dessert menu as they anticipated the arrival of a road train for the first time in weeks, on Tuesday.
While the tiny town in the far west has been resupplied regularly by air during the weeks they've been cut off by flooding, icecream is one of the perishables that doesn't travel well in a light aircraft.
Diamantina Shire mayor Robbie Dare said the town had had three truck resupplies since Christmas, so the latest arrival was greatly anticipated.
One of three trailers will be devoted to council equipment - tyres, oil and parts - to keep its plant going.
"All our gear was in the right place for us to keep working - we knew the flood was coming for ages," Cr Dare said.
Once roads reopen to general traffic in the shire, visitors will find an all-bitumen road to the Big Red sandhill west of Birdsville.
Cr Dare said the last seven or eight kilometres were being constructed, and had been put in for safety reasons with so much traffic on the road in the tourist season.
"I hope we dry out now so we can get a good tourist season," he said, adding that his Simpson Desert Oasis accommodation had only had three rooms booked between Christmas and Easter.
Sight to behold
An estimated 6000 square kilometres of floodwaters is continuing to be a sight to behold as it makes its way down the Georgina River-Eyre Creek system in far west Queensland.
The 200 kilometre-long flood has been making headlines since inundating Lake Nash in mid-March and threatening Roxborough Downs' newly created levee bank a week later.
According to Bureau of Meteorology data, the Burke River was 3.05m below the bridge at Boulia at noon on Tuesday, while Eyre Creek at Bedourie was 0.45m above the bridge at 9am on Tuesday.
King Creek at Cluny, south of Bedourie, was 1.3m above the approaches at 9am Tuesday, and further down at Birdsville, the Diamantina River was 0.45m above the approaches at 5pm on Monday, and rising slowly.
Cr Dare said the level might peak at 0.3m and put the road out for a day.
He said water levels in the far west river systems were similar to floods of 1995, 1997 and 2019, and less than levels of 2009, and would make a great deal of difference to the region's beef producers.
"We've had no rain in this part of the state - our grasses were all gone - so this water is very welcome," he said.
"It's a massive sea of water - King and Eyre Creeks join near Glengyle so it's a sea of water from Bedourie to Cuttaburra Crossing - that's 70km.
"Plus it's spreading west to the NT border, to the Muncoonie sandhills.
"The water will go through the desert to Goyder Lagoon in northern South Australia."
Tourism by air
One group taking advantage of the aerial spectacle is Travel West, which has organised two-day packages departing from Brisbane from mid-May.
Veteran guide Graham Reid, who has been to Lake Eyre over 100 times, will be on board to point out the river systems, road networks and points of interest below, as well as interpret the view out the plane's window and share historic titbits.
Mr Reid said it wasn't all about the water in Lake Eyre but the journey it took to get there.
The flights in the ATR72 twin engine, high wing plane equipped with a toilet can take a maximum of 58 passengers and will travel over 4000 kilometres, covering Channel Country flood-out country to Birdsville for a sample of the culture and cuisine for an hour-and-a-half.
The flight then turns south to fly over Goyder Lagoon, the Simpson Desert and Lake Eyre, then down over Lake Torrens before landing in Port Augusta for the night.
The return journey the following day takes in the Marree Man, Lake Eyre South and parts of Lake Eyre North again before following Cooper Creek, stopping at Charleville for lunch before continuing onto Brisbane.
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