Eringa Waterhole

Most tourists pass the shallow end of the Eringa Waterhole without realizing what a beautiful place it is. If you have time, camp there for one or two nights.

See if you can catch a yabby or maybe even a fish. The aboriginal people at Finke reckoned there were plenty of fish in it but I never caught any. Explore the ruins of the old homestead and visit the magnificent wooden cattle yards to admire the strength, tenacity and skill of the yard’s builders.

The waterhole is about 120km north of Oodnadatta or five hundred and fifty kilometres by road from Alice Springs.

If you drive in from the north you reach a rise after miles of flat, treeless gibber country. From the top you are suddenly greeted by a kilometre long deep stretch of permanent water. From the south the same gibber plains are interspersed with clay flats and an occasional sand hill.

It is easy to see why it was significant to the Aboriginal people and it must have been a sight for sore eyes for the early explorers and settlers.

The pastoral lease was originally taken up by the Treloars in 1875 but Kidman managed to take over the lease in 1891 and it would have been in the Kidman era that the remaining homestead was built. Kidman’s grand plan was to buy up properties along the droving route from the Queensland channel country to the markets down south.

The explorer John McDouall Stuart camped at here in 1861 during his race with Burke and Wills to be the first to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Eringa is one of Geoff's Secrets