The Oodnadatta Track is a 620-km dirt road through the South Australian outback, running from Marree in the south to Marla on the Stuart Highway. William Creek sits near its midpoint. The track follows the route of the old Ghan railway, which was itself built along ancient Aboriginal trade routes and the line of mound springs fed by the Great Artesian Basin.
The road passes through some of the most remote and geologically ancient landscape in Australia. The outback here is not the ochre desert of popular imagination but a flat, pale, sparsely vegetated plain with a sense of enormous space and silence. Mound springs along the route are extraordinary features — water that fell as rain hundreds of thousands of years ago, trapped in the artesian basin, bubbling up through mounds of mineral deposits. The Pink Roadhouse at Oodnadatta and the William Creek Hotel are the main stops.
The track is generally manageable in a 4WD vehicle in dry conditions, but requires preparation: carry extra water, fuel, and food. Check conditions before departing — the track becomes impassable after heavy rain. William Creek is the last reliable fuel point on some stretches.