Munga-Thirri National Park

This is about the park in Queensland. For the park in South Australia, see Munga-Thirri–Simpson Desert National Park

Munga-Thirri National Park is a large national park in Queensland. Located in Outback Queensland, the park borders Munga-Thirri–Simpson Desert National Park across the South Australian border. With an area of 10,120 km² (3,910 sq mi), it is Queensland's largest national park.

The park is closed during summer every year for safety reasons, usually from the last day of November to mid-March.

Understand

Get in

Munga-Thirri National Park is about one hour west of Birdsville and can only be accessed via unpaved roads and takes 73 km (45 mi). From the town, head west onto Birdsville-Simpson Desert Park road all the way past west until you've eventually arrived at the park.

See

Visiting the Big Red

• 1 Poeppel Corner (Poeppel's Corner), K1 line. Where the state of Queensland meets South Australia and the Northern Territory. Rather interestingly, New Year's Eve occurs three times each year at thirty minute intervals in Poeppel Corner, similar to Cameron Corner and Surveyor Generals Corner, since it is at the intersection of three time zones. Unfortunately, this is only for four-wheel-drive tourists as 2WDs won't be able to get thru the unpaved road. (updated Dec 2021)
• A trip to the park is never complete without seeing the sand dunes which started to form 30,000 years ago. Most of time time, the sand dunes are between 10 and 35 metres in height but they can also be 50 metres high and around 1 kilometre apart with the longest named "Big Red", being a good 200 kilometres in length.

Do

4WD driving is the only thing to do. There are no walking trails and Queensland Parks advises against leaving your vehicle alone.

Buy, eat and drink

There are no shops, cafes, kiosks, bars, pubs et cetera in the park. Bring everything with you, or head to Birdsville.

Sleep

There are no camping or lodging facilities and camping is only permitted within 100m of the QAA Line. Watch out for warning alerts from the Queensland Parks website.

Stay safe

You'll need to have some prior Outback experience to visit this national park. It is recommended to carry radio and satellite phone with you. Note that temperatures in the national park can rise up to over 50 °C in summer.

Go next

• Munga-Thirri–Simpson Desert National Park is across the border in South Australia. Otherwise, head east towards Birdsville.