Outback Queensland is revealing more than exquisite scenery in the wake of recent rains. Unique adventures and a sense of place are also on offer, writes Judith Elen.

I am sitting with Wangkangurru elders Jimmy Crombie and Don Rowlands at the edge of the Simpson Desert, near Birdsville in outback Queensland. The Diamantina River, Cooper Creek and other waterways have escaped all restraints and lace the landscape with a network of fresh tributaries and vast milky sheets of water into which roads and fences disappear. Travellers might suffer minor setbacks (Big Red sand dune is inaccessible the day I plan a visit), but no one is at risk and the locals need us, besides, the water-threaded landscape and flowering desert are reason enough to come. A chartered Dash 8 flyover reveals an endless artwork of burnt-red earth, ochre water and green-veined wetlands, perhaps seen once in a lifetime.

Here at the Aboriginal story site of Thutirla Pula (The Two Boys), Jimmy and Don tell how the secret desert wells known to the old people came into being. Their knowledge, reading the landscape like a map, is in danger of being lost. "These are things we need to share with other people," says Jimmy. "We're hiding things too much and when we die it's really hidden."

They talk about corroborees of the 1940s and ‘50s (at a sacred men's site, they remember peeking out when they were told to hide their heads under a blanket), smoking ceremonies where special plants were burnt to chase out bad spirits (one was held to stop the boys swearing – Don says it didn't work for Jimmy).

Eyes shaded beneath a battered hat, Jimmy says: "The waters are good for the land. After they go down there's lots of tucker and everything grows". I pick and try the pigweed he points out at our feet, which tastes like a fresh, vinegary salad.

The outback threaded with water is a unique sight, but there is more. This is a place of ancient and pioneering history, as well as family history, an archive of people and movements. Qantas launched its story at Winton, and the Qantas Founders Museum at Longreach is a fund of relics, an initiative not of the company, but of the community. I climb aboard a 747-200 and examine a full-size replica of Qantas' original Avro biplane.

At Longreach the Kinnon family operates the Station Store & Cafe, Thomson River cruises, campfire dinners, camps and the unforgettable Cobb & Co coach gallop, with the teenage Kinnon boys doing their bit.

A fascinating lesson in pre-history awaits at Winton's Australian Age of Dinosaurs research-and-fossil-preparation facility. It holds the largest collection of Australian dinosaur bones, which are still being unearthed in this region. Better yet, amateurs can get involved with hands-on preparation of fossils. Lark Quarry, a 95 million-year-old dinosaur stampede site, is nearby.

Carisbrooke Station, Winton, another family concern, offers accommodation, tours, bushwalks and self-drive trails around its beautiful heartland country. Through pristine bushland, past creeks and gullies, clambering down a rocky trail, the owners' son, Charlie Phillott, leads me to a red rock overhang sheltering ancient Aboriginal rock art.

At Barcaldine, the wonderful Workers Heritage Centre traces the 1891 shearers' strike, alongside recent histories, in restored country schoolrooms. Back in Wangkangurru country, Birdsville Pub, Birdsville Working Museum (you could spend a year and not see all its relics of outback life), the historic cemetery, even the Birdsville Track and the Birdsville Races await. All in good time.

How to get there

By train: the Spirit of the Outback travels from Brisbane to Longreach twice weekly. There is a connecting coach to Winton; www.railaustralia.com.au or call 1800 872 467. By plane from Brisbane: Qantas flies to Longreach. Skytrans flies to Birdsville. West Wing Aviation has charter flights.

What to do

In Winton we recommend staying (and joining in a tour) at Carisbrooke Station. In Longreach, try a Kinnon and Co, Outback Longreach or Outback Aussie Tours and Travel tour. Skinny Dingo Tours specialise in Birdsville tours, including Thutirla Pula. Contact details for these businesses, as well as comprehensive outback travel, tour and accommodation information is found at www.queenslandholidays.com.au.

Judith Elen travelled courtesy of Queensland Tourism.