Marree: The Last Town Before Lake Eyre
If you’re travelling the Oodnadatta Track toward Lake Eyre, Marree is the last place you’ll stop that has a pub, a servo, a place to eat, and enough people that it feels like a town rather than a dust stop.
It’s also, in its own right, one of the more interesting places we pass through. Most people don’t know the half of it when they stop for fuel.
The Afghan Cameleer History
Marree’s history is tied up with the Afghan cameleers who operated across central Australia from the 1860s through to the early twentieth century. These men — mostly Muslim migrants from what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan, though the colonial-era term ‘Afghan’ was applied broadly — brought their camels to Australia as working animals for expeditions and supply lines in country that horses couldn’t handle reliably.
Marree was a hub. Camel teams departed from here to supply outback stations that had no other reliable access. The cameleers built a mosque in Marree — long since gone, but historically significant — and left a mark on the town’s character that persists in its name (‘Marree’ is believed to derive from ‘Mirra Mitta’, a local Aboriginal term, though the cameleer connection is often what gets remembered).
The old Ghan railway line also ran through Marree before the route was abandoned and the modern Ghan was built further west. The original Ghan was named after the Afghan cameleers it replaced.
The Pub
The Marree Hotel is one of those outback pubs that has accumulated so much stuff on its walls and ceiling over decades that the decor has become the attraction. Licence plates, flags, photos, newspaper clippings, touring pennants from sporting clubs that came through on road trips — it’s a record of everyone who’s stopped in Marree and wanted to leave something behind.
We stop here for lunch on our tours. The food is honest pub food — don’t arrive expecting a menu that surprises you. But there’s cold beer and shade and a few hours of being in a place that feels genuinely remote without being uncomfortable, which is the right combination after a long morning on the road.
Lake Eyre South
From Marree heading north on the Oodnadatta Track, you get your first glimpse of the Lake Eyre system at Lake Eyre South — the smaller southern section of the lake. It’s visible from the track and gives you a first sense of the salt flat landscape before you reach the main lake further north.
In a flood year, Lake Eyre South fills before the main northern lake and can be a striking sight on its own — a sheet of water reflecting the sky in the middle of otherwise dry desert country.
What Marree Tells You About the Journey
I always think Marree is where the trip shifts in character. South of Marree you’re in the outback but still in country that has recognisable infrastructure. North of Marree, the distances between anything increase, the mobile coverage drops out, and the landscape becomes something different. The stop in Marree — even just for fuel and a cold drink — marks a threshold.
Our tours pass through Marree on day two. By that point the group has usually settled into the rhythm of travel and the conversations in the pub tend to be good ones.
