Dead centre? It's activity central, now that the floodwaters have arrived from Queensland, bringing life and creating one of the marvels of the natural world as the desert blooms and the vast saltpan 700km north of Adelaide begins to fill.

To what extent is anyone's guess, although locals say they are seeing more water pour into the bone-dry lake than at any time since 2000, when it ended up close to half-full, forming an inland sea that stretched beyond the blanched horizon. The torrents that swept down the swollen Georgina and Diamantina rivers, mixing in Goyder Lagoon before surging through Warburton Creek and into the lake proper, carry a bounty of new life: nutrient-rich sediments to feed the thirsty native vegetation that has erupted all around it, and in turn herbaceous native rodents; fish for the mass of birds tracking the flood; all the water the wild camels from the Simpson Desert can drink.