Drinking Water availability - Birdsville or Mt Dare

[FNQGU]

Can anyone tell me if either of the above locations have potable water for travellers to re-fill the tanks? eg. 50 litres or more via hose.

Cheers
Will be passing through in a couple of weeks.

[TPC]

You should be able to get water from both locations but it will be bore water so I would not drink it without treating it.

[threedogs]

X 2 with above and dont use in your radiator
under any circumstances, far too many minerals

[FNQGU]

Ok, thanks for the info.

[Rock Trol]

When I was there in 2013 every store and servo was selling 10 litre boxes (silver bladders) of drinking water ($10). A little pricey but a much safer bet than drinking out of the tap.

[MudRunnerTD]

When I was there in 2013 every store and servo was selling 10 litre boxes (silver bladders) of drinking water ($10). A little pricey but a much safer bet than drinking out of the tap.

That is all I use when travelling. Buy 3 just for drinking.

[TPC]

When I was there in 2013 every store and servo was selling 10 litre boxes (silver bladders) of drinking water ($10). A little pricey but a much safer bet than drinking out of the tap.


That is all I use when travelling. Buy 3 just for drinking.

In 2010 most supplies had run out when we got to Birdsville as due to the flooding the supply truck had not been able to get there so I would not rely on there being boxes of water.
The pub even run out of Coopers so we had to change to Scotch as no other beer is worth drinking.

[Rock Trol]

In 2010 most supplies had run out when we got to Birdsville as due to the flooding the supply truck had not been able to get there so I would not rely on there being boxes of water.
The pub even run out of Coopers so we had to change to Scotch as no other beer is worth drinking.

I had a 40 litre water tank in the car that I kept as reserve and bought water on the way up to use for drinking and general duties. Even though I carted the water from Adelaide it was handy to have across the Simpson trip as I knew it was good quality.

[MudRunnerTD]

I had a 40 litre water tank in the car that I kept as reserve and bought water on the way up to use for drinking and general duties. Even though I carted the water from Adelaide it was handy to have across the Simpson trip as I knew it was good quality.

yeah i ran a 60lt water bladder for cooking and cleaning and my drinking was in the casks. I carried all of them from Melbourne but bought if i needed and they were available. At a push i would have drank from my bladder but it was Melbourne water anyway.

Casks are easy to pack and are nicely managed in 10lt boxes.

[MudRunnerTD]

The pub even run out of Coopers so we had to change to Scotch as no other beer is worth drinking.

Must have been sh1t :p

[threedogs]

Must have been sh1t :p

Did you miss the bit about carting Adelaide water OMG
10 ltr bladders would make awesome pillows.

[Rock Trol]

Did you miss the bit about carting Adelaide water OMG
10 ltr bladders would make awesome pillows.

LOL..
Its a lot better than it used to be, especially with the desal plant in place. Not like in the 80's when I first visited Adelaide and was used to drinking rainwater. That was real 'hard' water to drink.

[TPC]

LOL..
Its a lot better than it used to be, especially with the desal plant in place. Not like in the 80's when I first visited Adelaide and was used to drinking rainwater. That was real 'hard' water to drink.

I agree, Adelaide water is very drinkable now as they upgraded the filtration plants several years back.
As a kid our water often had a brown tint to it as it came out the tap.

[Dirtydog16]

I know this an old thread but for what it is worth I went from North of Brisbane through Dalby out to Birdsville then down Birdsville track to Marre over to Lyndhurst and then up strezlecki to innaminka through thargominda, cunnamulla, st George and home. In June 2015.

We drank, showered and cooked with only whatever was freely available on the way.

The only two places that the water was hard to drink or brush teeth with was somewhere like windorah and thargominda. If you look on the map, they are one above the other and may share the same underground water source.

If the water is non potable the signs will tell you.

The locals drink the water and there are no signs about boiling to drink. (like the ones you see in parts of Tassie)

I would save your money in buying bagged or bottled water and would save the weight in carrying excess water with you.

Water was quite good everywhere else and there were 6 of us on the trip.

If you were worried you could also drop purification tablets in your drums before drinking. One pack of those would be cheaper and lighter than carrying excess water from somewhere else.

On another trip this year in June / July we also drank the water from Brisbane to normanton / karumba over to burketown to mt isa to emerald and home with the exception of Adel's Grove near lawn hill national park because they just pumped it straight from the creek and I don't remember if it was filtered or not. We used chlorine tabs on that water.

Cheers

Sent from my A1601 using Tapatalk

[FNQGU]

Yeah, it's an old thread, but still perhaps relevant to anyone heading that route.

When we got to Mt Dare, they had stacks of those 10 litre square plastic jobbies for sale. Premium prices of course (like the bloody diesel), but it is what it is. If i was to do it again, I'd ring ahead to make sure they had plenty if I was going to rely on them. I now have 60 litres underfloor in Stainless, so its almost a moot point, just talking about drinking water here as others may need the info.

[Boinzo]

My experience (in June this year) was that most places are cool if you ask nicely. I filled my 56L tank on the servo apron at Bedourie. Crossed the simmo. Filled 2 10L jerries at Dalhousie and the tank again on the apron at Kulgura Roadhouse. I find if if I ask nicely and check its potable it's been all good. I even was allowed to fill at the servo apron in Yulara and down town Alce. That Bedourie water was sweet as tho!