I think the worst traffic jam I’ve ever seen was in the middle of nowhere. In the middle of the South Australian desert, or to be more precise, at the Cooper Creek Ferry on the Birdsville Track.
I’ve seen plenty of traffic jams since I came from Melbourne. A traffic jam like this was not the sort you’d expect to see while bush camping in the outback, without even a long-drop toilet or a rubbish bin within 100-kilometers. It was an absolute grid-lock…no one was going anywhere for days! It was lucky that everyone had their own accomodation with them!
I think this one might have been the worst I’ve ever seen, though, as it was taking people days to move. It happened Monday at lunch time. By Monday evening the queue was 32 cars long. We’re told that the next morning it had reached 75 cars…and a few days later it was one kilometer long!
This was at the Cooper Creek, on the Birdsville Track. The ferry’s opperating because the main track is too flooded for cars to pass. I would never have expected to see a traffic jam somewhere like this.
This particular week was the week leading up to the famous Birdsville Races … which attracts about 6000 visitors every year. Yes, Birdsville, in the middle of nowhere, goes from about 100 people to over 6000 for that weekend. And this was the week that the traffic jam happened.
The Cooper Creek Ferry conditions of use state that the:
- “Maximum length of vehicles is 9.8m – trailers are permitted providing that the total length of the towing vehicle and trailer does not exceed 9.8m.”
Not everyone decides not to cross because their van is too big. This motorhome decided to try and cross, but got stuck trying to get off. The ferry operator told us that it turned out he was a meter over-size. The bumper bar was ripped off the back to try and get it off. They tried calling the grader that was working its way down from Birdsville (over 300 kilometers away) to come and drag it off.
In the end, we heard a story that involved using a hack-saw to get it off the ferry. I hope he had good travel insurance!
When we left at four that afternoon, there was a queue of 32 vehicles to get on the ferry because of this motorhome. We are told that by the morning, it was 75 vehicles.
A real outback traffic jam. I hope everyone made it to the Birdsville races.
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