No, it’s not an Indiana Jones film. Tasmania’s west coast is a hotspot for the hazard, according to the ABC.
Local Eunice Atkins once saw a horse and its rider go under the deadly soil.
“The horse went down, up to its ears … in one hit, it just went ‘whump’ and disappeared,” she said.
The pair were quickly retrieved, but the killer sand has reportedly claimed the lives of cattle, dogs, cars, quad bikes and even tractors.
Many tourists have also seen their four-wheel drives disappear under the sand after not taking local warnings seriously. One tourist group lost all four of its cars in the sand.
Unfortunately, the quicksand – which is formed when fine sand at the bottom of rivers and streams becomes waterlogged and can’t take any weight – moves around the area depending on the conditions – so there is no use marking out where it is located.
So, what can you do to avoid finding yourself in a scene from the movies on your next Tassie trip?
The advice is to talk to rangers or locals who know the coast before travelling.
As one of the locals put it: “There’s no room down there for bloody idiots.”
