What they told us in Birdsville was Oz was a big bowl with Birdsville
   the low point. When you got rain in the north Birdsville flooded
   even though it was not raining there. They need to dig a big hole
   and store all that fresh water :)

   Paul Lamar



     Hi  Paul, Actually the low point is Lake Eyre, some 30 metres or so
  below sea level, just to the south of Birdsville is a location colled
  Goyders Lagoon, it is the low point for the Diamintina River, when it
  runs, and mid-way from there to Lake Eyre Is the Warburton river and
  flows north into Goyders Lagoon, until the Lagoon fills then it turns
  around and with the Diamintina pushing it flows into Lake Eyre via "The
  Warburton groove", very strange. I was at the Birdsville races in 2006,
  the  125th year it has been run, this year it was washed out with
  flooding (from local water), in 2006  there was 7000 people in town,
  about 6500 camped,tents,swags, back of utes, just on the ground!! That
  same year I did a round trip 900km into the Simpson Desert and back to
  Birdsville.   I love it,  John B.


    Hi  Paul, was that red line your track flying to Coober-Pedy? My
 first trip out to the desert was to that first or second line of dried
 salt lakes just to the north of your track, I had to meet a 4wd there
 and land on a strip and fix some machinery I think that time it was the
 twin power scraper 2 GM two stroke diesels one front and one in the rear
 ideal for traversing the sandhills, like a push-pull. If you look at the
 picture of Lake Eyre you can see the Warburton Groove,coming from the
 top side.
                          John Burey.

 Yes roughly but it may not have been that straight :)
 Some of those long skinny dry lakes might be a good site
 for an attempt on the wheel driven land speed record
 if you could some how get the race car out there :)

 Paul Lamar

  The lakes may be suitable but I think the wind would beat you, pretty
bad at times, and chops up the lake surface as it is drying out, I
remember going out to the west of Popples Corner, border of NT,QLD and
SA. the lake was full from the heavy rain and I was back about 2 weeks
later and had no water left in it, and on the upwind side of the
saltbush plants were covered in salt crust.
  On a different topic, why has the new Mazda rotary engine gone to
side exhaust with side intakes, I had thought that the P ports were
better? As I had said I know nothing about the rotary engines, but they
interest me mainly because of the simple design, (well simple after it's
designed), and few parts to get thrown out when the you know what hits
the fan:'(
     John Burey.   ps. on the banks of the Warburton River is a caravan
park=-O , about straight West of Mungarrine on the Birdsville track.

The side exhaust were used to cut down on the unburned hydrocarbons.
The world has gone crazy pursuing engine emissions to the ridiculous
extremes. There is a certain class of people with brain defects
that hate the automobile and will make up any draconian excuse to try
to eliminate it. The car represents ultimate freedom and they would
rather control our movements.

http://www.amazon.com/War-against-Automobiles-B-Bruce-Biggs/dp/0525230084

Paul Lamar

A few excerpts:

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"Estimates made several years ago in a study for the Congress by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering produced a range of estimates that smog may result in an additional 4,000 deaths a year. On the basis of this finding, it was often reported in the press that smog killed 4,000 people annually. Given the present state of knowledge, however, 4,000 must be considered to be an upper limit, and there is also an equally valid lower limit-zero. It is not so much that smog is killing people but that it is making the difference between life and death in marginal cases. To put this in perspective remember that every year about two million people die, and since we will all die anyway, even if smog is responsible in some way for 4,000 deaths annually, its toll represents at most .2 percent of those who die, and .01 percent of the population. Ten thousand people are murdered every year; fifteen thousand die from falls."

"The other major pollutant from automobile emissions is potentially more dangerous. Because the combustion process is incomplete the internal-combustion engine produces some carbon monoxide (CO), a deadly gas. Your blood is a CO junkie-it likes CO so much that it will gobble it up instead of the oxygen you need for life. This danger has long been recognized; it is the reason that leaving the garage door open while running the car is a well-known safety precaution, and conversely the reason that neglecting to do so has long been a popular means of committing suicide. Although sufficient quantities of carbon monoxide will kill you, it is by no means clear what trivial amounts will do to you."

"Several years ago, Paris was concerned about the effects of CO concentrations on police performing traffic duty.
It was learned that the traffic cops had better health than police on other assignments. Why? The traffic cops were not permitted to smoke while on duty. CO from smoking cigarettes is many times more concentrated than the worst traffic pollution."

"But better combustion also results in more combination of nitrogen with oxygen, producing NOx' The nature of operation of the Otto-type internal-combustion engine, used in almost all cars in the world, precludes eliminating both hydrocarbons and NOx' Now the reader may reasonably ask this question: If the smog is caused by the combination of NOx and hydrocarbons, why is it necessary to get rid of both of them? That is an excellent question."

"The father of smog, Professor Haagen-Smit, said "the Muskie bill passed last December [1970] without Congress understanding that emissions in 1970 vehicles had already been controlled 70 to 80 percent." He described the EPA air quality standards for hydrocarbons as "absurd."

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