Woomera (A) is actually a RAAF base. It was established in 1947 so that the British could test rockets they were developing over the desert. There was a joint project with the Americans at one stage. The public have been able to visit since the 1980s and there are a number of displays, of which the most interesting is the open air display of rockets and aircraft. Many of the houses and flats are empty, as are most of the shops. The school had just 12 students in K-12 in 2022. There is free access to the observatory on Friday evenings. I saw one of the planets enlarged to the size of the moon. Roxby Downs (B) is the dormitory town that serves the nearby Olympic Dam uranium mine (D). In the main street there is a small but efficient shopping mall on one side and facing it across a bright green nature strip is a hub where all the services are gathered: early learning, high school, library, sports centre, pool, visitor information, gallery, café, medical service. It reminded me of a Canberra suburb in that most of the streets have been designed to lead nowhere, and the nature strips (covered in bark) are all planted with eucalypts. Andamooka (C) was the end of the road for me. I drove to the end of the asphalt and decided that continuing on to view Lake Torrens without a spare tyre (a new one having been ordered for me in Roxby Downs). It is a fascinating town, with a collection of small businesses operating within the community hall; a museum, motel and souvenir shop gathered around the post office; and the bottle shop doubling as a general store. Some original miners' shacks still stand, but what marks the town are the piles of pink and white dirt that miners dig out of their shafts and dump in piles. Here are photos from the trip.
Nights 256-259 - Woomera Travellers' Village and Caravan Park. Nights 260-263 - Andamoooka - Apoma Camping Ground at the skate park and picnic reserve. Nights 264-265 - Woomera again. After that I spent a few more hours in Port Augusta and then pointed northwards again to the east of Lake Torrens.
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I imagined spending ten days lazing around Hummocks' Station would be enough to shake off the tiredness accrued in Adelaide, but seemingly not. Everywhere I stop I have to build in extra rest days.
I don't know why I imagined there was industrial sprawl right along the coast between Adelaide and Port Augusta, or that Port Pirie wouldn't have coped with its air pollution problems at the same time as Sydney and Wollongong did! Most of the space is still rural and the geography of this part of South Australia is fascinating. The area is difficult to describe because it divides both between east and west and between north and south, despite being roughly only 300 x 30 kms. A narrow coastal plain runs up the east side of the Spencer Gulf and gives onto a series of flat beaches with no surf and extreme tidal ranges. On the east is bounded by the rolling Mount Lofty Range and the south Flinders Range, with its bands of rock and ever-diminishing tree cover. The other divide is provided by the Goyder Line, which passes across the plain (through Mount Remarkable) and marks where the annual rainfall is 250mm, thus dividing South Australia into those parts which are suitable for cropping and those that are not. Here are some photographs taken along the way. Nights 247&248 - Port Pirie Beach Caravan Park (1A). Situated on a river with a small beach, Port Pirie still has its lead smelter and wheat silos. It also has historic buildings and civic pride. I met a fellow artist who chatted with me about the time he spent with the greats of Broken Hill, Jack (Absolem) and Pro (Hart). Nights 249-251 - Baroota Ruins Campground (1B). Mount Remarkable National Park. Situated on the wrong side of Goyder's Line, Baroota Station did not survive for long. It's not possible to go far into the park without driving and what was most enjoyable were the old pre-invasion river red gums living with burnt or eaten out trunks (see this video). Night 252 - Port Germein Caravan Park (1C). Port Germein is truly a remnant from the past. It has an extraordinarily long pier which once shipped wool and wheat. I backtracked to Port Germein on the advice of a museum volunteer in Port Pirie to drive up to the top of the range (1D) to see the route taken by bullock carts etc bringing ore and other produce down to the port. Nights 253-255 - Shoreline Caravan Park, Port Augusta. This is where I spent night 126 back in April. Port Augusta is a strange town which I can't quite get my head around. Map two shows the whole state and how Port Augusta is forced to be a travel hub; it doesn't receive that many travellers tho, given that the east, west and two northern routes are into desert. The red lines show where I've been already on this trip and the blue ones where I am headed to: Woomera (2B) and Andamooka (2A) first, the northern Flinders ranges after that, and finally back th Broken Hill in NSW (2E). I made it back from Blanchetown (3,O) in time to meet up with the specialist mobile caravan electrician in Gawler. After that there were people I wanted to see and things I wanted to do in Adelaide.
Nights 230 - Gawler Caravan Park (3A). The electrician turned up promptly at 9am, so I spent the morning looking around Gawler. Nights 231 & 232 - Para Wirra Conservation Park campground (3B). This is in a beautiful piece of bush close to the city with excellent facilities, advertised as good for first-time campers. I drove down the Adelaide Hills and went visited The Cedars (3C) the home of Hans Heysen where he raised Nora Heysen. Nights 233 - 235 - in Mylor (3D) in a friend’s driveway. We did nice things like visiting the Jurlique herb farm and nearby Hahndorf, and spent a day eco-printing at her home. Click for two videos: In the Adelaide Hills Glenelg Adelaide St Kilda Lochiel Snowtown Night 236 - St Kilda (3E) in a car park between the boat ramp and the adventure playground. Night 237 - Lochiel, in the car park (3F) between the A1 highway and Lake Bumbunga, aka The Pink Lake. Like many pink lakes on this journey it didn’t look pink, thanks to recent heavy rainfall. I slept with a view of “Nessie’s cousin Loch Eel” rising from the water. Nights 238-246 - Hummocks Station caravan park (3G), near Snowtown. I had a night here on my way to Adelaide and knew it would be a good place to rest. It was even better than I expected given that there was a lot of rain and they placed me in a large shed with heaps of room. Snowtown museum has a good history page that includes the Michael family and Hummock’s Station, while the Snowtown movie Wikipedia page details the role of the town in popular culture. |
AuthorIn mid 2018 I started recording each night I sleep in Bertha: sometimes just for myself, sometimes to share with friends and other travellers. Archives
February 2024
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