Cattle Station Tour: Curtin Springs


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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Kata Tjuta
June 10th 2014
Published: June 17th 2014
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In the shade of a blue gum treeIn the shade of a blue gum treeIn the shade of a blue gum tree

In South Africa we'd have used another tree (withaak). Jurie relaxing before we do the next thing, whatever that was
With last year’s visit to the Cedarberg mountains and a not too long ago visit to Golden Gate in the Free State still etched in memory I find it hard to wax lyrical over Mt Connor; much less get excited over at last spotting some cattle. This is a cattle station, right? But I am being unfair. We did see some of the big red kangaroos too.



NO we did not get to see Uluru. Lazy morning again, experiencing life as in a stuffed sausage. 6 folks in a campervan. We are not doing too badly so far. The kids are amazingly adaptable. Brekky in our teeny dining room was cosy and chatty. At 14h30 we left for our tour of the cattle station with James from SE.IT as our guide.



Lake Swanson was a surprise. A salt pan with tidal patterns caused more by wind than anything else. The facts (too many to recount or remember) were indeed interesting. See pics. The station is over a million hectares and it seems has a labour force of only 4. But you can catch the details from Uncle Google or Aunty Bing. See pics.

Curtin Springs pump attendant?Curtin Springs pump attendant?Curtin Springs pump attendant?

Her name is Mongrel and we were requested not to feed her. Very tame and really grumpy if you did not offer her any food.


We had a lesson in outback fence construction which I found really fascinating. We saw these straight lines drawn on the earth from the aeroplane and wondered about them. Our drive took us all around Mt Connor which by the way is bigger and smaller than Uluru. The base circumference is longer and although it is officially not as tall; some farm hands have built a stone tower on top of it; 4 meters higher to equal Uluru’s height.



We had a sunset picnic with champagne, cheese and biscuits on the banks of the station cattle dam, at the base of Mt Connor; took pics and swapped travelling tales with our fellow tour members. The fence around it has been electrified to keep out the camels. The dominant male camel would otherwise use a chosen female camel to stand next to the fence and then line up all the rest; on the count of push the camels lean in on an unprotected fence and walk over to find new grazing and water. The first camel is usually trampled to death. The electric fence apparently deters this sort of behaviour.



According to the history of the camel in Australia; they were initially used for transportation; the government rule at the time was that once they had served their usefulness they were to be shot. Folks made pets of them and turned them loose. Today over a million camels roam the outback, more than there are people in the Northern Territory. We also paid a visit to Paddy’s underground house and the one he built for his wife, Felicity. She became his wife by responding to a newspaper ad. I really would like to explore such a house, this one of course was a ruin. It seems a remote controlled camera has picked up furniture and cutlery inside. I wonder why they don’t take the trouble to restore it?



There was a lot of experimenting with different breeds of cattle. The Angus bulls were too interested in fighting to breed; so they introduced Hereford heifers, these were too small to give birth unassisted and many died especially when mated with the sturdier Angus. The perfect solution seems to be the introduction of some or other Grey, I forget the name.



See also the caption on the car wreck pic for a story worth looking up.



We finished up with a 3 course meal at the station; vegie soup was delicious, huge steaks and the bread and butter pudding was saved for tomorrow’s lunch.



And again around me the rising and falling snores and creaking beds tell me it is time to switch off my headlamp and computer. Right next door our neighbour is still welding away at his upside down caravan. See pic. I have left a lot of the day’s story for the photos to tell. Remember to scroll down past the ads to pick up all the photos.


Additional photos below
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Fire PitFire Pit
Fire Pit

They are very strict about making fires under very controlled conditions for obvious reasons
Upside down caravanUpside down caravan
Upside down caravan

This guy really had problems and spent hours welding away at his caravan. We still don't know how he did it. Somewhere there's a pic in the next few days of it turned the right way up again. And we also don't know how he did that!!
GPS readingsGPS readings
GPS readings

Note the location
Lake SwansonLake Swanson
Lake Swanson

We were told that if we attempted to walk across this lake barefoot we would not make it across alive, such are the dehydrating properties of this salt pan
Under the salt is thick gooey mudUnder the salt is thick gooey mud
Under the salt is thick gooey mud

As a result camels were imported instead of horses as beasts of burden. The plan was to destroy the camels once they passed the age of usefulness but folks made pets of them and now they are vermin with more camels than people in the Northern Territory.
Lourens tasting and examining saltLourens tasting and examining salt
Lourens tasting and examining salt

Just a few seconds of that salt on your hands and they begin to dehydrate and go wrinkly
Swanson lakeSwanson lake
Swanson lake

Looks like snow. It was pretty cold that day too
Beetle must have landed accidently, he wont' make it out aliveBeetle must have landed accidently, he wont' make it out alive
Beetle must have landed accidently, he wont' make it out alive

Camels, cattle, horses, birds, humans have died in this unforgiving place, beautiful as it seems.
View of Mt ConnorView of Mt Connor
View of Mt Connor

Curtin Springs has its own mountain


17th June 2014

Curtin Springs
Nice to see you having fun and learning new and interesting things! :-)
19th June 2014

Such an interesting blog keep it up Gogo!
great photos and excellent entries .... looks like such a nice trip! be safe and God Bless.

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