The colony, the farmers and a town like Silloth......

Port Augusta- a neat little town nestling near the top of an inlet called the Spencer Gulf, which divides east from west in South Australia. As Betty needs a going over we had decided to stay two nights here, in cabins, and a good job we did for overnight the heavens opened!

Betty was booked in for a new tyre and a full service in a small garage on the outskirts, so while she was there we took the opportunity to look round the town, and it's 'heritage' buildings. The town was founded in the 1830s, and developed in the latter half of that century, so many of the buildings were typical colonial, which we have seen around the world in tropical British colonies.
We also spent a couple of hours in the Outback Centre, where we saw a few interesting archive films of the area, and the farmers who created the industry to the north. They had a particularly hard time during long droughts, and many lost their whole livelyhoods and indeed some died as a result. The railway was another interesting exhibit, showing how it was built to the north which allowed the riches of the area to be transported to Port Augusta, which in those days was a thriving seaport, exporting around the world, including Europe.
The rain caught up with us again on the second night- indeed almost the whole of the country was in a downpour, from Broome in the north west to Melbourne in the south east. Floods enveloped Alice Springs and Coober Pedy, as well as many inland towns in Victoria and New South Wales.
Today we had to make a decision- where will the weather be a little better- so we made our way west along the top of the Eyre Peninsula, (which is shaped a little like India) to a little village called Streaky Bay.

On the way we passed through good farming country, mostly arable, but with some sheep. Many of the 'fields' were huge, covering many square miles.Every ten miles or so we saw massive grain silos alongside a railway, and in the small towns along the way we noticed dealerships for farm machinery.

In one small town was a monument to the Farmer, standing 10 metres high 

 Streaky Bay ( see location below) is probably a smaller version of Silloth, and it poured down most of the way here. However although it eased a little as we arrived, once again we had to forgo the pleasure of the roof tent for a motel room! We had a walk around when the rain lifted, it is certainly quite a bit cooler now as a result.
This little town boasts a good fishing jetty, if we get a bit of time in the morning we might try a bit of that.

Many of the buildings here are also colonial, built probably at the end of the 19th century,  the hotel that we are staying in (below) was a little earlier, in 1866. Both of the museums look very interesting- one is on farm machinery- but only open on Tuesday and Friday so that is not a bit of good to us!

5-4-3-2-1- FIRE!

A local Wetheral connection with Woomera prompted us to spend the night there, to visit the local museum.

The connection- of course- was that the late Killoran Hotel on the village green was the building in which many of the Rolls Royce technicians were based in the 60s while testing of the Blue Streak rocket was going on at Spadeadam, just 30 miles away, and of course the firing range was at Woomera here.

In its heyday there were 5000 people here, nowadays just 100, mainly caretakers, although the Australian rocket testing is still carried out here, occasionally! It reminds us of a ghost town, the only people around are tourists, and those working in the museum and Information centre, and the occasional miner passing through on his was to the Olympic Dam mine 50 miles up a dead end road. The museum was fascinating, it told the whole story of Blue Streak and Harold McMillan's decision to cancel it. However it was used afterwards as the first stage of a European satelite launcher.

We saw the remains of a Blue Streak test rocket recovered from the desert, as well as many other rockets and missiles that had been tested here.

While travelling down here we passed Lake Gairdner, a huge dry salt flat that has been used for world land speed records many times. Just a couple of hundred miles away the British Atomic bomb was tested in the 50s, before testing was moved to the Pacific Islands. Unfortunately it was not possible to remove all the Aborigines before firing, and many suffered from burns and radiation poisoning, something covered up at the time as Aborigines were very much second class citizens at the time.

Travelling on from Woomera we came across our first sightings of wild emus, many groups of them roam the semi desert here.

So- on now to Port Augusta, and our first glimpse of the sea for well over 2000 miles and ten days travelling.

It's Desert- and there are pyramids- It must be Egypt!

But no- it's Coober Pedy- the back of beyond and the home of the world's Opal mining- or 95% of it anyway. The spoil heaps are everywhere as we near the town- the whole area is mined, and there are warning signs everywhere.

Arriving here lunchtime we had to find accomodation as it was so hot, last night in the roof tent we roasted and did not sleep easy, and as it's even hotter today we need Aircon tonight.

The whole reason for this town is Opals, until the 50s the nearest water was 20 miles away, and everywhere you look there are opal shops, or opal mines open to visitors. We decided to take a tour through one, which was  interesting indeed.

They are roughly 20 mtrs deep, and reached down a shaft with no ladders- just hand and foot holes. The miners worked in very cramped conditions, digging runs sometimes only 18 inches high, and 2ft wide, following the opal seam.Until the 50s they worked with pick and shovel, and rarely used explosives, and when they found opal had to scrape the stones out with penknives.

They also lived underground, the most comfortable place to be when the temporatures above often reached 50 degrees Centigrade ( 130f), and the flies were intolerable.

In fact many still do so, including a hotel that is built into a hill and most of the rooms including the bar are underground, and visited a church which is also underground .

Moving on again

On our last day in Alice we took off into the countryside to visit Emily & Jessie gaps, important Aborigine sites with rock paintings that are many hundreds of years old. They are of caterpillars, and the locals beleive that if a child is conceived he or she was originally a caterpiller. It was good to get out walking again as we haven't really been anywhere that we could since we came back

The afternoon was taken up with making ready for moving on, all the washing had to be done and the car reorganised, as tomorrow we move on south again, our target is Marla, some 500k.

Leaving early we made our way through the gap to the south of Alice, through which the Todd River, the Road and the Ghan Rail travels, and it is only about 100 yards wide!(see the Alice Springs overlook yesterday) However about 50k down the road we had a blowout- the front offside tyre blew  at 100kph and shredded before we had a chance to stop. We had a good spare- but the way the tyre fitters put the tyres on they are virtually impossible to get off, and we struggled for a while til a gentleman stopped to help. He also had a better jack, although ours is OK his was a good help. We finally got it changed and went on, reaching Marla about 3pm.

A cup of tea was in order, and a biscuit, but we were approached by a rather cheeky little bird who had no problem with eating out of our hands! Of course feeeding him brought along all his mates- so we had to discourage him eventually.    This is one of the better sites we have been on, with a good pool and very clean showers and toilets. An hour  in the pool- a great shower and then into the roadhouse for a great meal. They feed everyone like truckers round here!

A Town Like Alice......

the 50's film, shows an Alice which would be unrecognisable today. In those days there was one quiet street, now Hartley Street, mainly rebuilt, which then was the main road running through the town. Nowadays that has been bypassed, the Stuart Highway runs some 200 yards away, and the town itself is a bustling modern city.

It seems to have grown considerably since we were here last- only about two years ago, although the cenre is much as we remember it. Unfortunately, like many places throughout the world in this recession, there are a number of empty business premises even here.

On our essential visits list was the Royal Flying doctor service, whose life saving service was started here in the thirties. They now have 4 aircraft here, and 50 nationwide, and not only rescues injured and sick from the Outback but tranfers the sick to major trauma centres throughout Australia.

Close by there is a reptile house with all kinds of snakes and lizards. It is truly fascinating (and frightening) the range of reptiles in this country. On show there are the most venomous snakes in the world, such as the Taipan and the King Brown, and some of the most beautiful lizards. We were able to touch a goanna, around three foot long, although we were warned not to touch his head or his tail, he bites. There was also a saltie crocodile in a large tank, we saw him lying on the bottom, coming up for air every 15 mins. But certainly the most fascinating creature was the spiny lizard, around 6 inches long, moved very slowly but used his shape and colouring as camouflage

A few kms further north is Telegraph Hill, where the first line between South Australia and Europe was laid in 1872, which had to be relayed 12 times in Oz alone, the went undersea from Darwin to Singapore.It was interesting to see the old buildings there and the way they had to transmit the messages in Morse Code. And remember this was only ten years after Stuart had crossed the continent for the first time! The line enabled news from Europe to be received in Oz in hours rather than the weeks and months it had taken before.

Then on to the School of the air- where children have been taught for 60 years by radio and latterly live by internet. The teacher can see the pupil, from 4 to 14 years old, and teaches them with packs which are sent out by post and delivered by air every fortnght. Some are as far away as 900 miles, on remote farmsteads which might be as far as 60 miles from their nearest neighbour, or even a road! The school covers an area twice the size of the British Isles, and only has 120 pupils of all ages. Four times a year the pupils come to Alice to meet the teachers, and at 14 many of the pupils come here to a boarding school to finish their education.

This evening we had a meal at the Overlanders Steakhouse, where we experimented with the local dishes. On our menu was crocodile, kangaroo, emu and camel, as well as barramundi, a local fish. I have to say I enjoyed them all, but the croc was my favourite. Snake next I think!

Finally this is the original Alice Spring, next to the telegraph office, named by the original surveyor for the line after the wife of the superintendant of telegraphs. Crawler!!!

On the road again.

It is over a thousand miles to Alice- we won't be doing that in a day! The area down as far as Katherine we have done before- remember Litchfield Park and Mary lake we did coming up? So we went straight through to Mataranka, about 65k south of Katherine, our first night in the roof tent wasn't very comfortable, Apart from the Cane toads all around us, we had thousands of Fruit Bats flying over us and feeding just a few yards from us, very noisy all night. So we didn't sleep very well

I think we need to toughen up a bit!


Nothing much there- so we moved on. We had been told about Daly waters- just a tiny village really- but a very interesting pub. Apart from the helicopter on the roof, and a line of bras and panties hanging above the bar, the whole place was decorated with banners, visiting cards and signed banknotes. The barman told us that he had bought over an interior decorator from Florence.

Of course we had to add to the mayhem- so we left our banner and my card, it will still be there the next time a member of Carlisle South passes through.

As always here, it is a very long road between stops- it is normal to go fifty or sixty miles between roadhouses with only the odd Roo or Goanna to see apart from the countryside. That changes as we go south- from the green of the north, with it's long grasses and thick scrub, to the more open vistas and lower scrub as we get further south. There are many markers as we travel, just two of them are the tree that John McDouall Stuart, the first man to cross the continent south to north, ( took him six attempts), and after whom the Stuart Highway is named, and the Tropic Of Capricorn marker. It should be getting cooler as we go south ( nearer the poles!) but it isnt- it's 45 degrees out there- thank god for the air con in the car.

 In the evening we have storms, our third night in the tent we watched a magnificent lightning show all around us, and did it rain! But we were very comfortable and dry, and slept well.                                                                   Along the road we found the devils marbles, many round rocks some as much as 4 mtrs around standing high, almost as though they had been placed there. Actually they are formed by the uplifting of the land milenia ago and erosion of the corners of the rocks. When you think there is very little rain, and certainly no frost, it must have taken quite a while!

So on day four we come to Alice, we have been here before, two years ago, but found it interesting so we plan to stay here a few days. Will report back.

Glad to be here!

Arriving in Darwin at 04-30 a taxi took us to the hotel and immediately to bed. However at 8am the workmen right underneath us started work- drills, hammering and cutting gear felt like it was coming through the floor! So we got moved to the other end of the hotel, but by then our sleep had been interrupted. Hey-ho!

When we did finally get up for a late lunch, looked out at the Waterfront of Darwin, a relatively new development. Our apartment is very modern, and contains everything we will need to get organised.
Picked up by Joanne, we were taken to her house to pick up Betty, who is in very good order considering she has hardly moved for four months. She has been really well looked after, and we are extremely grateful to Joanne and Percy for doing that.
An evening at Joanne's Rotary club, during which I spoke about our club and district, was followed by a good night's sleep- our first since we came away.
Now starts the process of sorting out, making sure that everything is clean and dry, making room for all the clothes etc we have brought from home. Looking at it- how will we ever get it all in?

Back to Oz

After the sad death of Anne's father we are now able to resume our adventure in Australia, after four months at home.

On the way we are having a few days acclimatisation in Singapore, but we are finding it difficult to rearrange our sleep pattern, awake all night and very tired during the day. However we did manage to get along to Sentora, the playground island just off the south coast, spending a day in Universal Studios theme park.With the exception of a very wet stunt show, I have to say we were rather disapointed. There seemed to be rather a lot of merchandise and food outlets, rather than rides and experiences as we have been used to in Florida.
Another day was spent at the world war two fort of Silosa, also on Sentosa, first occupied in 1858, but a major defence in the last war. However as the Japanese invaded from the mainland in the north of Singapore, the defences were largely unused.
So oneards to Darwin, a very late flight this evening