Chambers Pillar 4WD Day Trip from Alice Springs

Alice Springs, Australia

The Chambers Pillar tour from Alice Springs Central Australia, is a special and rare opportunity. Visit the Simpson Desert plus Ewaninga Aboriginal rock art, Ooraminna & Maryvale Cattle Stations and the Titjikala Aboriginal community art centre. This 4WD tour travels through Simpson Desert sandhills, and rugged remote mountain ranges.

The 4WD route takes you via deserted Old Ghan Railway sidings and towns to Maryvale Cattle Station for morning tea. This route is where the Afghan camel trains traveled to supply Alice Springs from Adelaide until 1929, when the “Old Ghan” railway was completed. The “Old Ghan” was replaced by a more western new Ghan line in 1980. At Maryvale community store, Aboriginal artworks from the neighboring “Titjikala” community are available to purchase.

Heading west, cross the Hugh River and arrive at a lookout on Charlotte Range where you can see the Simpson Desert and Chambers Pillar standing high in the distance – a great photo opportunity.

Over the sand hills you go, and as you approach Chambers Pillar it is like entering wonderland, as you are surrounded by ancient castle like structures that dominate the landscape.

Stop at a beautiful shaded camp area at Chambers Pillar nature reserve for lunch. Here you can walk around the pillar for the best photo angles, and climb the base of the pillar, as did the earliest explorers to this area. The harder sandstones of Chambers Pillar were formed when this region was under the ocean, enabling this outstanding form to survive in this harsh environment.

The pillars first white visitor was explorer John McDouall Stuart in 1860, funded by James Chambers of Adelaide. Many early explorers inscribed their marks, and the pillar was an important landmark used by later explorers, including the builders of the Overland Telegraph Line.

Afternoon tea is in Ooraminna Station Homestead, a film set for " The Drovers Boy".