But recent rains have reached the northern mouth of the lake, with hopes it will be transformed from a salty sink to a breeding site for huge numbers of waterbirds such as pelicans, silver gulls and banded stilts. Wrightsair pilot Trevor Wright, who is based at William Creek, west of Lake Eyre, said it would take another two weeks to determine how much water would reach the lake.

"Whether the lake fills or not really depends on the rest of the tropical depression and the cyclones, but it's in a good position to start moving water into the lake," Mr Wright said. "I think it will be continuously flowing there for quite a while. "There is quite a bit of water up the top end of the lake but the lake won't be filled at the moment - we definitely need follow-up rain and we have got to look at what is coming out of these cyclones and tropical depressions."

Mr Wright said water flowing towards the lake, which is Australia's lowest point, was moving faster than in the past. "The water going down towards the lake is, I believe, faster than normal because with the drought, the animals have eaten out a lot of the vegetation in the creek beds so the water is actually moving quicker.

"It normally takes 21 days to go from the top of the lake to the bottom of the lake and looking at it this time, it's actually moving quicker. "What is really interesting is the water up the top end of Lake Eyre, the Warburton Groove which is the Diamantina (River), the amount of people that are either talking about boating down these creeks. "If you can visualise in your mind, a sail in between these two sand dunes, heading down the groove.

"I think we are going to get a lot of these experience seekers actually coming up and trying to go down the creeks. "The creeks are quite fast flowing, they're about three or four metres deep and in some areas you can probably water ski in them."