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Eastern Simpson Desert Archaeological Expedition 2008

Robyn Davidson's article A New Desert is in the November 2008 edition of The Monthly.

"Everyone is sitting around a fire. The camels have been brought in from their browsing and are tethered to trees. Their bells let out an occasional ting. Our band consists of scientists, artists, linguists, film-makers, writers, an Aboriginal ranger - a descendant of the original owners, the Wangkangurru - a couple of paying guests and a crew to nanny us through. In the morning, we walk to the kopi caps - the cynosure of our journey. (‘Kopi' means ‘gypsum'. It's a word from south-eastern Australia that has become generic, like ‘coolamon' or ‘boomerang'.) The stockman who discovered these whitish globes thought they were dinosaur eggs and took a few ..."

In "A New Desert", Robyn Davidson returns to the Simpson Desert 30 years after the journey she wrote about in Tracks. While travelling to an important, recently discovered archaeological site, she describes the changes the Simpson has undergone - in the years since her first trek, and in those since white colonisation.

"Sometimes, I feel alienated from this secondary, cattle-scarred, orphaned place, and do not want to be here. It is a form of homesickness for a past experience, and for people who have vanished. But eventually the mood dissipates. This desert belongs to another ‘now', so why compare it? This one is worth preserving, worth our efforts to understand it. The previous one is contained in a sliver of time, along with the knowledge I had then and have since replaced with other knowledge. Just as the present owners of the Simpson, descendants of the Wangkangurru ancestors, will make of their inheritance what they can."

Click here to view the expedition coverage by The Weekend Australian newspaper.

Click here to view the list of bird species recorded.

2008 Research Team

• Dr Mike Smith, National Museum of Australia
• Dr Philip Jones, South Australian Museum
• Robyn Davidson, author & explorer
• Dick Kimber, historian & author
• Dr Ken Johnson, ornithologist & marsupial expert
• Luis Hercus, linguist, Australian National University

As on previous ADE expeditions, we conducted a detailed survey of bird species with 79 different species being recorded. Click here to view the list.

ADE is grateful to the following sponsors for their continued support.

Walking through the Eyre Creek floodplain

Pelicans on an Eyre Creek waterhole

Cockatoos at an Eyre Creek waterhole

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