Changelog

The Queensland side of the Simpson Desert crossing (the QAA Line over Big Red) stayed shut past its usual mid-March reopening after the 2025–26 Channel Country floods — reported closed to 31 August 2026. The road's note now says so and points to the Queensland Parks alert.

Reads the live gauge up the valley at Diamantina Lakes alongside Birdsville's own — a rise upstream is an early sign of water heading down toward the town's roads, often days ahead. It's not a flood warning; the Bureau of Meteorology's warnings are linked on the page.

Birdsville's roads get cut when the river is up, so the new gauge shows the live height of the Diamantina at the town and whether it is rising, steady or falling against its recent range. The Bureau of Meteorology's flood warnings are linked as the official call.

What each month is really like — the summer heat and flood-cutoff season, the cool dry touring window, and the July Big Red Bash and September Races weekends — with plain verdicts from past-year patterns.

Each long approach — the Developmental Road via Windorah, the Birdsville Track, the Eyre Developmental Road and the Simpson Desert crossing — with its surface, length, hazard and typical season worked out from today's date, and the official road reports linked. It shows the usual pattern, not today's live status, so always check the road report before you set out.

Enter your tank size and fuel use and it checks each road into Birdsville against its longest stretch with no fuel stop, then tells you how much extra to carry if your tank won't make it. It comes with the roads to check first and a remote-travel safety checklist.