The 50th anniversary of the first crossing of the Simpson Desert has been marked by a re-enactment of the trail-blazing journey.
In 1962, the late geologist Reg Sprigg and his wife Griselda became the first motorists to cross one of the world’s most remote regions with its 1,000 parallel north-south running dunes spread over 176,500 square kilometres. Accompanying them on their epic adventure were their children Marg (then aged 10) and Doug (then seven).
Fittingly, the Sprigg siblings were at the wheel of the G60 Datsun Patrol – identical to the one used in the first crossing – as it traversed the full 437km across 1000 red-sand dunes between Dalhousie Springs and Birdsville.
The re-enactment of the original journey took nearly five days. Back in 1962 the Sprigg family averaged just 5km/h as they pioneered a track between and across the dunes, often getting ‘beached’ on giant saltbush outcrops and risking disaster as it began to smoulder under their 44 gallon (200 litre) drum of petrol.
In 2012 the crossing was much easier, thanks to the well-worn track now best known as the ‘French Line’ established by the French oil company in the early 1960s two years after the Spriggs’ crossing and by the thousands of four wheel drive enthusiasts who have made ‘doing the Simpson’ a rite of passage since.
The two Sprigg siblings – who still run the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary that their parents founded – were greeted by a crowd of well-wishers as their vintage vehicle crested ‘Big Red’, the dune marking the end of the crossing near Birdsville.
