An elderly man is missing after setting off to follow a famed but punishing explorer's track through the Simpson Desert.
It's been nine days since the 78-year-old told Birdsville police he was heading for a camp on the treacherous Madigan Line, and he was expected back by Thursday.
Police say there's been no sign of him, and no contact via radio. A helicopter search was launched on Sunday and will resume on Monday.
He was headed for Camp 17 on the Madigan Line - an unmade track over sprawling, shifting sand dunes - named after Aussie Explorer and geologist Cecil Madigan, who led a 1939 expedition across the Simpson.
He later named the desert after Alfred Allen Simpson, an Australian industrialist, philanthropist, geographer, and president of the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia.
The track is not made, and travellers who attempt it are warned they could easily become lost.
Tyre tracks from previous travellers often vanish in the desert sands, and travellers are told to use GPS markers to find their way.
