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Home > Travelogues > 2006 Travelogues Index > South Australia Outback
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Short version only - full version with pictures yet to come
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Heading into the outback, we tour the Northern Flinders Ranges, Wilpena Pound, Blinman, Gammon Ranges, Arkaroola, Leigh Creek, Marree and Woomera

Part way between Pimba and Glendambo, the towbar on the Patrol broke with a bang, and the caravan dragged on the safety chains as we pulled to a stop onto the narrow edge of the road.  I drove back to Wirraminna station which we had passed.  The family farm 1,600 sheep and 800 cattle as well as running an accommodation business.  They had guests arriving as well as getting ready for shearing, but they took the time to make phone call after phone call to endeavour to find someone who could repair our tow hitch so we could continue.  It was Saturday afternoon and annual race day at Roxby Downs and most people were not at home.  He eventually found help for us at Glendambo.  Glendambo is also not much more than a fuel station and motel, with only a few houses and wonderful outback people.

 

It was dark when I got back to the caravan, so we moved on for only a short distance until we could pull of the road with safety.  Apart from trucks rattling across a nearby grid, it was a peaceful enough spot.  We do not like to drive at night in pastoral areas. 

 

We were warned that the road from Glendambo to Kingoonya was badly corrugated due to mining exploration trucks.  But this was not the worst part of that day’s drive. 

 

We crossed the east-west railway line at Kingoonya.  This former railway service point now appeared to be an Aboriginal settlement.

 

In all, it was 290 kilometres from Glendambo to Wirrulla, all but the last twenty kilometres was rather badly corrugated.   The route runs between the salt Lakes Everard and Gairdner.

 

The orange land and hills along the northern half of the route were distinctive.

 

We stopped along the Nullarbor Bunda Cliffs this time at a lower section, accessed by an informal track, where walking down to a tiny beach would have been easy. 

 

Heading towards Balladonia, we drove towards showers.  The sunset indicated more rain to come.  Lightning danced in the east and south east all night.

 

As we drove through Balladonia in the morning, rain was coming in from the south.  It poured all the way to Norseman.  How often we have met rain at Balladonia or Norseman. We turned off to try our normal way home through the Frank Hann National Park, and found the road very muddy and slushy.  All the good done by the rain in cleaning our rig was soon gone as it became covered in mud.  We met other travellers who had been all morning getting from the Ninety Mile tank where they said it had rained heavily all night.  Rain stopped when we passed the tank, and the mud dried on.  The orange stains on the white Patrol persisted for some time.

 

Our last night on the road was spent in bush between Lake King and Newdegate at the conclusion of our holiday. 

 

We left home on 25 January, departedTasmania on 1 April and arrived home on 27 April 2006. 

 

 

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Looking towards Wilpena Pound late in the afternoon from the Cazneauz Tree.

 

This tree was photographed by Harold Cazneaux in 1937, and he won many awards for his photo entitled ‘The Spirit of Endurance’.  The tree looks similar today, with even more green branches, showing its true endurance.

 

At Sacred Canyon, ancient Aboriginal rock engravings are found along the wall of the creek bed.

 

Moving further north, we drove through the interesting Brachina Gorge geological trail, where a huge variety of geological formations and fossils are well signed.  The road follows and criss-crosses the creek line. 

 

Our plan was to stay overnight in the Gorge, but with rain settling in, we feared we may be trapped if the creek rose.  As we moved out of the Gorge to flat plains, rain was rapidly closing in and obscuring Wilpena Pound and surrounding ranges.

 

 

 

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A taste of the Outback. 

 

As we were on our way home, our tour was brief and did not cover many of the drives and sights of the Northern Flinders and the south Australian Outback.

 

Leaving our wonderful hosts at Peterborough once again, we headed to Orroroo, past sheep grazing on green pasture, with a freshly tilled cropping paddock behind. 

 

We diverged from the Highway to head north towards the northern Flinders Ranges and the Flinders Ranges National Park.  The area was much dryer, and farms were larger, soon becoming grazing land only.

 

Update: The Flinders Range National Park was renamed Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park on 12th February 2016 in recognition of the Aboriginal name for this ancient groups of ranges. 

 

Dragon lizards seen on the walk to Arkaroo Rock, an important Aboriginal art site in the Flinders Ranges features ochre and charcoal images depicting the creation of Wilpena Pound

 

Approaching the southern rim of the Wilpena Pound. 

 

Looking across the floor from the peak Mount Ohlssen Bagge

 

The view north from the peak, with distant ranges in pastel shades, and the flower stalk of the Yakka, which grows all through the ranges.   We started the trek early in the day, and found the breeze at the top refreshing. Others from a tourist coach with international tourists were heading up as we descended, and a few ladies had to stop.

 

Overlooking the Wilpena Pound resort.  There is a large dam which supplies all water to the resort complex, and the largest solar power station in Australia, although this can be supplemented by three diesel powered generators. 

 

The view from the top of the rim.

 

Climbing down again.  The trek involved some scrambling. 

 

We did not do the walk to the highest peak on the pound, St Mary’s Peak.  This trail incorporates an optional loop across the floor of the pound which takes all day. 

 

The old station homestead not far is inside the opening to the pound where to creek drains out.  Station owners grazed sheep and cattle, and grew wheat in the pound, which they cleared.  They had to cut through a huge rock to enable wagons to fit through the entrance to market the wool.  The station did not prove viable in adverse seasons. 

 

A healthy black buck watched us from beside a permanent water hole along the Wilpena Creek.

 

See what Chris and Valdis saw in the Flinders Ranges in 2012  

In the Vulkathana-Gammon Ranges National Park, the countryside was dry and much of it is fairly barren.   Leaving the caravan roadside, we took the four wheel drive loop track, part of which is one way only.  We discovered why when we came to a crest where the track appeared to vanish, so we had to get out and look for which way to go.

 

Looking back on the track we had just come down. 

 

Leaving the Gammon Ranges, we headed west to Copley. To the north of the tiny town is a large open cut coal mine.  The former Ghan train line has been kept open only as far north as Copley coal mines to transport coal to Port Augusta. Update: The Copley and Leigh Creek coal mines were closed in November 2015, and the last coal train ran in April 2016. See details and links

 

We pulled of the road at a blue metal dump in this very flat area, although occasional low ranges dot the distance, as can be seen silhouetted against the setting sun. 

 

The Ochre Cliffs near Lyndhurst have pigments of shades orange, and was used by Aboriginals for ceremonial purposes, as well as in medicine, art and trading. 

 

Further to the north, the now ghost town of Farina was established in 1878 as a farming centre and railhead for wool and cattle. Many of the buildings still remain, some of which are being restored.  See our 2019 visit to Farina.

 

It was also the most northern point where wheat and barley was grown.  This proved unsuccessful as wet years are rare.  Here sheep head for a dam on the station. There is very little vegetation.

 

Marree is a small outback town with much of interest.  It is at the start of the Birdsville and the Oodnadatta tracks, and was on the former Ghan railway line.   The Ghan line now goes further to the west.  See more at Marree from our 2019 tour.

 

Tom Kruze’s original mail truck used on the Birdsville mail run. 

 

On the wall of the information centre, a map shows how artesian water is being taken from points north and east of Marree to Roxby Downs mines.  This is endangering natural wetlands and wild life. 

 

“If the transnationals and colonist governments continue to defy the natural order of things in their quest for material wealth, Mother Earth will retaliate, the whole environment will retaliate, and the abusers will be eliminated.  Things will come back full circle back to where they started.  This is the prophecy of all indigenous peoples” (1981)

 

We left Marree, heading out onto the Oodnadatta Track, which we followed for around 70 kilometres.   Two young people on pushbikes were heading north along this track. 

 

Some remnants of some of the former railway sidings remain.

 

At Alberrie Creek, the overhead water tank has been made to look like a dog. See more at Alberrie Creek 2019.

 

We turned south to go follow the Borefield Track.   This road services the pipeline from the bore fields north of Marree taking water to Roxby Downs mines.

 

The Borefield Track was in good conditions, although only a few days earlier, rain has made it so slippery it was virtually impassable.  For some way we followed a vermin proof fence.  Feral cats, rabbits and foxes have been eradicated from a total of 60 square kilometres, and this has provided an area of complete protection into which four species of locally extinct mammals have so far been reintroduced.  See Arid Recovery

 

From  Roxby Downs, where the BHP (formerly WMC) mine is one of the largest copper mines in the world and uranium, gold, silver and other minerals are also mined, we visited the opal mining settlement of Andamooka. 

 

Andamooka is a settlement of shanties amongst diggings – with the appearance of a gold mining town of the gold rush era. 

 

Heading towards Woomera, much of the way is through a truly treeless and flat area. 

 

At Woomera, there is an interesting outdoor display of rockets and aeroplanes.

 

Inside the museum the history of and the reasons for the rocket range are demonstrated, as well as stories of success and failures in rocket trials.

 

There is a section dedicated to the memory of Len Beadell, the surveyor who found and surveyed the Woomera Rocket Range, as well as surveying and building the outback ‘highways’. I have all of Len’s sometimes amusing and delightfully illustrated books. 

 

We met the Stuart Highway at Pimba, which is a hotel come fuel station, and headed in a westerly direction, passing some large salt lakes, including Lake Hart.  Lake Hart was an integral part of the rocket launching facilities, as the land was so flat, the edge was the only variation.

From the Parachilna Hotel, we drove on to the Parachilna Gorge, stopping along the road near a creek which had already crossed the road.

 

We monitored the creek levels during the night.  The rain had stopped by the time we went to bed, and the water levels went slowly down. 

 

Next morning it was sunny, and a magpie warbled in the morning.  Feral goats clattered their way down the rocks from the very tip of the hill behind us.  

 

Further along, we stopped at Blinman, a former copper mining town, and walked around the old mine site. 

 

A short drive south from Blinman is “The Great China Wall”.  Eroded hills in this area have a ridge of rock protruding along the top.

 

Heading north east, the vegetation became sparse.  We drove into Chambers Gorge, which is significant aboriginal cultural site.  The peak of Mount Chambers is a knob protruding from the ridge behind the creek.  A variety of different colours and textures can be seen in the rocks along the creek line.  The creek line cuts through the range at its highest point. 

 

The next highlight was Arkaroola; a private conservation park. This former station was purchased in the 1960s by the Reginald and Griselda Sprigg who returned to its natural state and developed eco-tourism.  In the past mining has included gold, copper, uranium and radium.  There are a number of self drive tours and walk trails, as well as a four wheel drive self drive track with a fee to access. Other four wheel drive tracks can only be taken with staff and flights are offered. 

 

There is an astronomical observatory.  

 

The drive to the Paralana Hot Springs was one of beauty and interest.  The radio-active water seeps to the surface and is too hot to touch; even further down the creek line it is still very warm. 

 

Well worth visiting Arkaroola for a few days. 

 

Remnants of the cottage at Lively’s gold find.

 

Driving through station back tracks east of Arkaroola, across ridges of jagged rocks with scarcely a blade of grass, we were surprised that we didn’t see any sheep at all. 

 

Then we came to the station homestead and shearing shed. 5,000 sheep were being shorn and were in very good condition; astonishing on the dry bare ground.  The station is around 500 or so square miles.

 

Considering the price of wool, and the high cost of maintaining a remote station, I cannot see how it could be a viable enterprise. 

 

We also spoke to station owners at the adjoining station, where they run only 4,000 sheep on two adjoining stations.  In an area with and expected annual rainfall of six inches or 100 millimetres which can fall at any time of year, the last few years the rain fall has varied from none at all to four inches or 150 millimetres.  They also have to dig wells much deeper to reach ground water. 

We re-visit Brachina Gorge and surrounding Flinders Rangers features in 2019.
See some of our photos of Wilpena Pound
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