Dick Whitaker, meteorologist( retired), Bureau of Meteorology( weathersmart @ optusnet. com. au)

Kati Thanda— Lake Eyre, situated about 700 km north of Adelaide, has at least three notable claims to fame. Firstly, it is the lowest area in Australia, with some parts lying at around 15 metres below sea level. Secondly, it is in an area that experiences the lowest annual rainfall in the country, with an average total of around 125 mm. And lastly, the lake also lies within the hottest area of Australia, with the highest temperature ever recorded being 50.7 ° C at neighbouring Oodnadatta on January 2, 1960.

Despite being called a lake, there is seldom much water in it, and most of the time, it is a flat, dry salt bed with an area of approximately 9,500 square kilometres. Heavy rain over the Channel Country in southwest Queensland naturally drains into the lake, and substantial rain over the lake itself can occasionally lead to rising water levels.

But it was the usual dryness of the area, together with the extensive, flat, salt-crusted surface, that attracted the attention of Englishman Donald Campbell in the 1960s. Campbell was intent on breaking the land speed record for a wheel-driven car— which then stood at 634 kph— and he developed a car that had the potential to do it.

This was the“ Bluebird”, a radical, highly streamlined 4-tonne monster powered by a 3,320kW Bristol Siddeley Proteus gas turbine engine. Bluebird was theoretically capable of reaching a velocity of 800 km / hr, but a long flat run of at least 33 km on a hard surface was required, and Kati Thanda was considered ideal.

First attempt

In late March 1963, Campbell and his team arrived at Kati Thanda, with a record attempt scheduled for May to avoid the fierce heat of summer. But against all the odds, rain fell soon after their arrival.

The existing rainfall records from nearby Oodnadatta show that 30 mm fell on April 7, 22.1 mm on May 14, followed by 4.1 mm the next day. In addition, Marree, located some 405 km southwest of Oodnadatta on the other side of Kati Thanda, recorded 22.4 mm on May 15. Some southern parts of South Australia experienced their wettest April to June on record( Figure 1).

It seems likely that rainfall over the lake itself was greater than over Oodnadatta and Marree, as local flooding was reported in late May. This rendered the track unsuitable for any high-speed run and the attempt was abandoned for 1963.

Ironically, later in the year, the weather dried up, and extensive parts of South Australia experienced well-below-average rainfall, with record-low three-month falls( September to

“ Bluebird” on display at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, England. Credit: Wikimedia Commons