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Saved: December 21st 2018
Lake Hart
Old wheel salt encrusted...
The Adventure continues………. (Don't forget to expand the map to see the route better and also the photos) 27th February 2017 We left Werribee South today after spending the weekend here getting provisions and washing etc. and headed to the Grampians National Park.
The Grampians features a striking series of sandstone mountains and numerous waterfalls in an area of 413,000 acres. Forty million years ago the Southern Ocean reached the base of the mountain range!
We had found a free campsite within the National Park – extremely rare occurrence!. Plantation Campground was 8kms down a gravel road from Hall’s Gap and was a lovely place with many camping spots, several toilets and bucket showers together with lots of fire pits. We found a good spot and set up camp before unhitching and going off t o explore.
We first went into Halls Gap, the main town (pop 613 in 2011) in the Grampians, which is set in the Fyans Valley at the foot of the Wonderland and Mt William ranges. A very touristy town as you would expect but not the original town. That was located where the Bellfield Reservoir now stands.
There is a tourist route through the area so we took a drive along part of it, getting some great views.
That night we had a BBQ over a wood fire
28th February 2017 Today we drove to nearly the summit of Mt William the highest peak in the Park at 1167m and visited several lookouts and waterfalls (not much water) ad went exploring as much as we could, there were a lot of closed roads which was disappointing, nevertheless a lovely area to visit.
A major bushfire burnt out over 50%!o(MISSING)f the Grampians in 2006. Major flooding followed five years later in January 2011
1st March 2017 We went to Horsham today and up the Sunraysia Highway to just north of Ouyen to a free camp for the night.
Horsham is the main ton in the Wimmera region of Victoria, named by James Monckton Darlot, a squatter who claimed 10,000 acres, after the town of Horsham in the UK and was the centre of Western Victoria’s wheat and wool industry.
The Black Saturday bushfire in 2009 affected Horsham with 14000 acres burnt around the city fringes including the golf
club and eight homes. Then devasting floods in 2010 and 2011 effected the city with over a metre of water in parts of the CBD and over 600 homes damaged in one year.
We had lunch here before moving on to Warracknabeal and stopping at the tiny township of Brim to marvel at the stunning mural, painted by Brisbane street artist Guido van Helten in 2016 on disused silos in the town.
We passed through Ouyen, home to the Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph since 1998. It was the location of the 2003 Ouyen Raindance where 500 women danced naked at a secret location in an attempt to raise the spirits of the town suffering from a prolonged drought.
It I also home to the big Mallee Root symbolizing the time when the roots of Eucalyptus Dumosa were a mainstay of the economy of soldier settlers of the area being collected for sale as firewood.
We stopped at a free camp north of Ouyen.
2nd March 2017 It was a short drive today to Red Cliff just outside Mildura on the Murray River, to stay at the caravan park so we could do washing.
The Grampians
Looking towards Hall's Gap Red Cliffs was first settled by Europeans in 1918. Following WWI over 700 soldiers settled in the town and began work establishing vineyards which would become the town’s chief industry.
We drove into Mildura to check out the town and were impressed by the very wide streets and the nice clean appearance of this town on the Victorian side of the Murray River. Mildura produces 80% of Victoria’s grapes. Many wineries also source grapes from here. There is a big citrus, almond and dried fruit industry with 92% of Australia’s dried fruit coming from here.
A major drought in Victoria from 1877 to 1884 prompted Alfred Deakin, then chairman of a Royal Commission on water supply to visit the irrigation area in California. There he met George and William Chaffey. George came to Australia in 1886 and selected a derelict sheep station, Mildura, as the site for the first irrigation settlement. While the land along the river and irrigation channels is fertile, much of the land around Mildura is dry, saline and semi-arid.
The bar of the Mildura Working Men’s Club was noted in the Guinness Book of Records as having the world’s longest bar until
1995 when it was removed for renovations.
Being situated on the Murray, Mildura is a hub for water sports, paddle steamers and houseboats.
3rd March 2017 We crossed into New South Wales this morning and left the Murray River, passing first through Wentworth at the confluence of the Darling and Murray rivers.
On our trip north to Broken Hill we saw hundreds of wild goats, the most seen so far. Outside town we saw the huge solar plant, completed in 2015 and one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere with the capacity to provide power to 17,000 average home. There is also a massive cemetery.
The first European to visit the area was Major Thomas Mitchell in1841. In 1844 the eplorer Charles Sturt named the Barrier Range whilst looking for an inland sea. Broken Hill was founded in 1883 by boundary rider Charles Rasp when he discovered what he thought to be tin but was, infact silver and lead. The orebody they came from proved to be the largest and richest in the world. In 1885.Rasp and six associates formed the Broken Hill Proprietary Company… BHP, later BHP Billiton (the world’s largest mining company).
Lake Hart, South Australia
Ghan railway passing the lake By 1915 the company realised its ore reserves were limited and began to diversify into steel production/ Mining in Broken Hill by BHP ceased in 1939. Lead, silver and zinc are sill mined in the town by other companies, producing around two million tonnes annually.. Sheep farming is now one of the principle industries with almost 2 million Merino sheep in the district, considerably more sheep than people.
The town itself is pretty depressing with few new homes and lots of corrugated iron homes. Even though it is in New South Wales the town and surrounds uses Australian Standard Central Time, the same as South Australia and the Northern Territory. This is because Broken Hill’s only rail link at the time was with Adelaide and not Sydney.
Broken Hill is also known as Silver City and The Oasis in the West (of NSW). And has a hot desert climate. It is a stopping place for the Sydney to Perth Indian Pacific Railway
We only stopped for fuel and moved on west along the Barrier Highway to our Free Camp over the border in South Australia. Mannahill was a station and pub and a couple of houses. An
Lake Hart
Seen from our free camp unremarkable couple with a dog and caravan stopped and we chatted over drinks then a loan German girl came over to chat. She was on her way to Margaret River, WA for work and to catch up with friends. She was travelling with another German girl, but she left to go to Bali!!!
4th March 2017 We took the road through Peterborough, Wilmington, and Horrock’s Pass to Port Augusta to the same caravan park we stayed such a long time ago, ready for the trip north.
Peterborough, originally named Peterburg is in wheat country in mid north South Australia, named after Peter Doeke who sold land to create the town. It was one of 69 towns in South Australia renamed in 1917 due to anti-German sentiments during World War I.
Peterborough sat on the intersection of the East-West railway linking Port Pirie to Broken Hill and the North-South railway linking Adelaide eventually to Alice Springs via Quorn. The railway station is still operational and is another stopping place for the Indian Pacific railway.
Wilmington, originally named Beautiful Valley is on the edge of the Mount Remarkable national park and was once known for sheep, wheat
Coober Pedy
Sunset outside town with an opal mine blower on town sign and barley but climate change has introduced olive farming. Horrock’s Pass is a steep and winding road down to the Spencer Gulf, good thing we were going down and not up.
5th March 2017 At last we are on the Stuart Highway which will take us from the Southern Ocean through the Centre to Darwin and the Timor Sea.
Our first stop was to take a look at Woomera (spear thrower).
This also refers to the Woomera Range Complex (WRC), a huge defence systems testing range covering 122,000square Kilometres, an area roughly the size of England. This is smaller than it was in 1947 but still covers one seventh of South Australia. The Woomera township is part of an Australian Defence Force base (RAAF Base Woomera), which along with e test range forms WRC. Woomera initially operated as a closed town between 1947 and 1982 whilst rocket testing. Since then the general public have been allowed to visit and stay in the township – there is a privately owned caravan park there.
The Range is the world’s largest land-based instrumented defence systems test and evaluation range facility.
We stayed at the free camp at
Coober Pedy
Lobby of the Caves Hotel cut into the hillside Lake Hart on the edge of the Woomera Prohibited Area. This is a 160 sq. kms. salt lake which is part of the Lake Eyre feeder system. The camp area was good with lovely views of the lake.
6th March 2017 We continued north up the Stuart Highway through the Woomera Prohibited Area until we reached Coober Pedy and the Oasis caravan park where we were booked for two nights. We set up and then went to look around the town and out to the Breakaways, the colourful hills that have broken away from the Stuart Range. There are two lookouts which highlight the open spaces and colourful environment, giving the impression of the long gone inland sea that early explorers dreamt about. The Breakaways have featured in Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome and Ground Zero movies. The 70 km round trip took us east to the dog fence. This 2m high wire barrier stretches for over 5300kms across three states to protect the sheep country from the dingos The desert-like moonscape along the fence, with its fossilised seashells, grey, soft clay dirt and cracks that appear bottomless, has been nicknamed the ‘moon plain’. It too has been
Coober Pedy
Underground opal shop the scene for numerous movies.
It is believed soldier returning from the trenches in France during WWI introduced the idea of living underground in homes known as ‘dugouts’. No matter what the outside temperature the climate underground remains around 23 -24C year round. About 50% of the population live in dugouts. The homes are excavated into the hillside. The soil is stable enough to allow for huge ceiling spans in rooms and it is not unusual for families to buy adjoining properties and tunnel to link the two or more dwellings. Some mansion spread up to 450 square metres underground. We didn’t take one of the home tours but got the general idea of what they were like from visiting an underground opal shop and the Caves Hotel, where we had dinner. There are several underground motels in Coober Pedy.
Opal was found in 1915 and since then the town has been supplying most of the world’s gem quality opals. Coober Pedy has over seventy opal fields and is the largest opal mining area in the world.
Golf is mostly played at night here with glowing balls to avoid daytime temperatures and the course is completely grass
Breakaways, Coober Pedy
Salt and Pepper hills, the white one has eroded faster than the brown free. It is the only golf club in the world to have reciprocal rights with The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.
7th March 2017 Today we left the van to go and find Lake Eyre. Leaving Coober Pedy we headed east towards William Creek, passing through the world’s largest cattle station of Anna Creek (24,000 sq. kms. - 5,930,529 acres) It is seven times larger than the USA King Ranch in Texas and slightly larger than Israel. This station was recently purchased by Tony and Jackie Williams, who already own Mount Barry station, Coober Pedy and four other stations. They are purchasing The Peake outstation for Anna Creek later in the year.
When we arrived at William Creek we were surprised to see four light aircraft on the side of the road next to the hotel. It turns out that Optus telephone company were having a launch of their mobile service to William Creek. Sadly the service was down that day!!!!!
William Creek is halfway along the Oodnadatta Track with a population of 6 and has one of the world’s most remote pubs. In the Memorial Park is the first stage of the
Black Arrow Rocket, Britain’s only successful space launch, that was recovered from from surrounding Anna Creek station. The town was once on the Ghan railway line.
We stopped here for a refreshing ale before heading south to see South Lake Eyre which can be seen from the road, north and south Lake Eyre connected by the Goyder channel cover an area of over 8,000 sq. kms, It is usally a dry salt lake but when floods occur in Queensland eventually the water reaches the lake.We then went to see the unusual mound springs at Wabma Kadrbu Conservation Park. Water seeps to the surface from the Great Artesian Basin. Sand and mineral deposits form mounds that stand above the surrounding flat and salty landscape. Lush reeds and other plants grow around the spring and its overflow, the tail. This permanent water supports a variety of life including birds, fish and aquatic invertebrates, some of which are found only in these springs. We went to Blanche Cup and The Bubbler – which does bubble. These were the reason the overland telegraph and later the Ghan came this way. Some remnants of rail sidings remain and we went to a few including
Oodnadatta Track
Old telegraph station Margaret siding (5m below sea level) where we spotted budgies and finches around a waterhole.
On our way back to Coober Pedy we stopped at Coward Springs to sample the natural spa, 29C and high in mineral salts. For a $2 donation we donned bathers and went to try out the spa on the edge of the permanent wetland. It was a great treat to cool down as it was a warm day. In 1887 a bore was sunk herein preparation for the coming railway. By the 1920’s millions of gallons of water flowed without control over the dry gibber plains. The salty water from the Great Artesian Basin had corroded the cast iron bore head and bor casing to create an evolving wetland. A large pool also formed where water bubbled from the eroded bore and this became a popular bathing place for locals, rail crew and travellers.
The bore was rehabilitated in 1993, it was redrilled and relined and the flowrate controlled and reduced. The spa is lined with railway sleepers and is amazing.
It was a big day out but well worth doing
8th March 2017 We drove along the edge of
the Painted Desert north to Marla for an overnight stop at the roadhouse. This is the start of the Oodnadatta track which we could not take as unsuitable for our caravan, so we stuck to the Stuart Highway. The Oodnadatta track runs 617kms of unsealed road south to Marree. The track follows an ancient Aboriginal trading route.
9th March 2017 Today was a long haul (486kms) crossing the border into the Northern Territory to Yulara and Uluru (Ayres Rock).It was a little disconcerting to see the speed limit set at 130kph – we travel around 95kpm. On the way east along Lassiter Highway to Yulara we went passed Mt Conner on the edge of the vast Curtin Springs cattle station (1,028,947 acres). This station has been owned by the Severin family since1956. Peter Severin had previously worked as the head stockman on another station and was given 1400 head of cattle when he moved to Curtin Springs. The family now offer accommodation and guided tours. Hey have a thriving handmade paper making business, making paper in the traditional Aboriginal way using the local spinifex grass.
Mount Conner is 300m above the surrounding plains and is a flat
Lake Eyre South
Map showing catchment area of Lake Eyre topped horseshoe-shaped mesa. The mesa is part of the same vast rocky substrate thought to be beneath Uluru and the Olgas.
As there was no alternative we had to stay at Yulara Caravan Park, fortunately they had an out of season deal going so that made it better. The park was huge but they crammed everyone into a small area, we took up two sites as were put on a site too small for us. We were surrounded by backpackers and were far from impressed.
Anyway, moving on, we set up and went to the pool to cool off.
10th March 2017 At $25 each for a 3-day park pass we thought we better make the most of it so went first to see the Olgas and then drove around Ayres Rock both directions.
The Olgas is a set of 36 impressive domed rock formations or bornhardts to the west of Ayres Rock. They are composed of a conglomerate of sedimentary rock consisting of cobbles and boulders of varying rock types including granite and basalt, cemented by a matrix of sandstone. The highest dome – Mount Olga is 1066m above sea level and 564m above
the surrounding plains and is higher than Ayers Rock.
Mount Olga is named in 1872 by Ernest Giles in honour of Queen Olga of Wurttemberg, daughter of Tsar Nicholas I.
We took some lovely photos from the lookout on the way to the Olgas accompanied by an army of flies.
Ayres Rock or Ulrulu is Australia’s most recognisable natural icon. The sandstone monolith stands 348m high with most of its bulk below the ground. Even in this off season period there were many tour buses and tourists, it must be pretty dreadful in high season.
We returned to Yulara for a look around the various shops and hotels. Yulara is the service village for the Uluru National Park and has effectively turned one of the world’s least hospitable regions into a comfortable place to stay. It has four hotels of different star ratings, tour camping grounds and a caravan park with a free shuttle bus connecting all facilities. There are also camel rides available ($100) and buses out to the rock 15kms away, shops, a bank, post office and a pub.
11th March 2017 Today we went back to the Rock to take a
Oodnadatta Track
'The Bubbler' mound spring video then back to the caravan park and Yulara to look at the artwork on display. We asked if we could have a charcoal fire for a BBQ, the man in the office didn’t know so we pointed out they had bags of charcoal on sale there and told him we would be having one that evening which we did in our fire pot next to the caravan, which is now converted to use either charcoal on a grid or wood.
12th March 2017 Today we left Yulara and headed for Alice Springs, our next stop on the way North. We had booked into a caravan park for two nights so we could do some exploring It was another big day (452kms) as there is very little to see on this stretch of road to encourage us to stay awhile and few free camps.
We got set up at the G’Day Mate CP, just out of town and very nice and they had an offseason deal. Had a drive around the town and did some grocery shopping.
Alice Springs is situated roughly in the geographical centre of the country and usually referred to as ‘Alice’ and
William Creek
Rocket remains outside the pub is named after Lady Alice Todd, wife of the telegraph pioneer Sir Charles Todd. The normally dry rivers running through the town are the Todd River and the Charles River. The town is nearly equidistant between Adelaide and Darwin with a population of around 28,000. Sadly Alice has many problems brought on by the big divided between Europeans and Aboriginals, crime and alcohol abuse. The main industry is tourism.
13th March 2017 We went exploring the West MacDonnell Ranges which are very pretty due mainly to the red quartzite peaks and gorges. Some of the valleys contain fossil evidence of the inland sea that once covered central Australia. We called in to Simpson’s Gap the site of a permanent waterhole and the black-footed rock wallaby (not that we saw any). We then went to Ellery Creek Big Hole where Danie decided to have a swim and managed to lose the car keys in the water! Fortunately, after some time, he located them and we moved on.
We decided to call it a day and retraced our steps back to the caravan park as it was 35C and rather warm. Later in the trip we heard that people
from Yulara had gone to Alice via King’s Canyon and the walk around the rim was closed due to the heat so we were pleased we gave that a miss as it was a long way out of town.
There is not really much to see or do in Alice and the indigenous people are rather confronting. Just happy to say we have been.
14th March 2017 37C today and our destination was the Devil’s Marbles 496Kms away, 100kms south of Tennant Creek with no towns and only station country and three uninspiring free camps. The free camp ($3 donation each) at the Devil’s Marbles was lovely with picnic tables, toilets and wide benches that we used that night. We took towels and pillows and lay out watching the stars and a lightening show. We met up with people who had been in Yulara the same time as us but we had not spoken. They came to our van and we had a few drinks. Peter had gone to offer two girl backpackers some WD40 to oil their very squeaky back door. I had the same idea and was walking round to the back of the van
to get our can when he reached the girls near us. I called over that he had beaten me to it as the noise was driving me mad. I invited them to come to have a drink he and his wife did but the girls declined.
The Devils Marbles are huge granite boulders scattered across a wide shallow valley. Formed by erosion millions of years ago they vary in size from 500mm to 6 metres across. Many of the granite stones are balanced precariously on top of one another appearing to defy gravity. They continue to crack and erode today creating an ever-changing landscape.
15th March 2017 38C today and humid as we drove north between the Tanami Desert and Barkly Tablelands, passing through Tennant Springs the hub of the Barkly Tablelands, vast sprawling plains of black soil with golden Mitchell grass (desert-loving grass found only in Australia), that covers more than 240,000 sq. kms. (59,305,292 acres), roughly the same size as the UK.
Tennant Creek has developed from it rough tough gold mining and droving days into a modern town. It is home to one of the four remaining original telegraph stations in Australia and
Alice Springs
Looking towards The Gap along the Todd River the last gold rush in Australia in the 1930s. At the time it was the third largest gold producer in the country.
We passed through Elliott (pop. 355), a town almost half way between Alice and Darwin. The town began as the site of Number 8 Bore on Newcastle Waters Station as an army camp during World War II and is named after Army Captain RD Elliott MBE. The town is on the edge of Newcastle Waters Station, a cattle station of about 2.5 million acres carrying about 45,000 head of cattle including round 20,000 brahman breeders and annually turn off around 13,000 for export to Indonesia.
Our stop for the night was at the pub at Daly Waters. It is an original outback pub that has seen its fair share of shoot outs, stampeding cattle in the road outside, murders and drunken brawls. It is known for its array of bras above the bar I left a T shirt several years ago and this time my very old, battered Akubra hat.
Daly Waters Airfield was a centre for the London to Sydney air race of 1926, a refuelling stop for early Qantas flights to Singapore, a
World War II Airforce base, including a field hospital, and more recently, an operational base for joint military manoeuvres.
We used the pub pool (only ones in it) to cool off and later had dinner there.
16th March 2017 37C today as we headed to Pine Creek. We stopped at Mataranka hot springs, Bitter Springs and Rainbow Springs in Elsey National Park, but they were all closed due to heavy rain and crocodile sightings. We shall try and see them on our way down from Darwin to Longreach in late April.
We called in to Katherine to the Information bureau as we wanted brochures for Litchfield NP and Kakadu. We will go to Katherine Gorge late April as too wet right now. There is so much water around and everywhere is incredibly green.
Katherine is named after the river that runs through the town, a major tributary of the Daly River. Katherine River is named after Catherine, second daughter of John McDouall Stuart’s expedition sponsor James Chambers. It is the closest town to RAAF Base Tindal, named after Archie Tindal, the first RAAF member killed in action on the Australian mainland during World War II;
Tropic of Capricorn
Just north of Alice Springs hedied whist manning a machine gun against Japanese raiders in Darwin and is buried at the Adelaide River war cemetery.
Katherine began as an outpost established with the Australian Overland Telegraph Line. It has grown with the development of transport and local industries including mining, particularly gold mining; strategic military function with RAAF Base Tindal; also as a tourism gateway to nearby Katherine Gorge National Pak.
Katherine is the start of the Victoria Highway that goes to Kununurra in Western Australia, part of the Savannah Way linking Cairns, QLD to Broome WA.
Onward to our campsite for the night, Pussy Cat Flats caravan park at Pine Creek. We stayed here is no free camps around this area. At $15 for the night it did us just fine.
Pine Creek was named after the pine trees lining the creek, workers on the Overland Telegraph Line dug up gold in the 1870’s and another gold rush started. In the 1890’s there were 15 mines working and the town had a population of 3000. Today there are 473.
17th March 2017 The temperature now at a pleasant 34C as we head to Adelaide River (pop. 237) where
Tennant Creek
Devils Marble camp ground we intend staying a few days at the Adelaide River Showgrounds.
The finding of gold at Pine Creek had a major impact on Adelaide River. The town was founded during the building of the Overland Telegraph Line and during the wet season mail bags to and from Darwin was exchanged at the river until a rail bridge was built in 1888. Soon a pub and police station were built.
In 1911 the Hardy brothers, local buffalo hunters established Mount Bundy Station on a 330,000 acre pastoral lease near the town. Using local Aboriginal stockmen to hunt and process the animals they began exporting buffalo hide to European markets.
Adelaide River played a central role during World War II, in 1939 it was designated a R & R area for personnel serving in Darwin. After the 1942 bombing of Darwin civilians made a mass exodus south. Adelaide River became an important tactical supply and communications base and in August 1942 the Adelaide River War cemetery was established.
Whilst there were numerous bombing raids on the surrounding rea Adelaide River was bombed only once in 1943. At the height of hostilities 30,000 Australian Army and US soldiers were
Tennant Creek
Devils Marbles based near the town. During the war years the highway was sealed to cope with traffic. By 1943 over 2000 vehicles a day were using the road. The original rail bridge was upgraded with timber decking to allow it to be used by road vehicles as well as trains.
“Charlie” the Buffalo, made famous in the 1986 movie, Crocodile Dundee was a beloved local resident until his death in 2000. He is now stuffed and stands on the bar at the Adelaide River Inn.
As we only had a hort trip we set up and went to the pub to see Charlie and have some lunch, returning to the showgrounds where we cooled off in the pool there.
18th March 2017 Today we went to explore going first to Robin Falls where there were several campers by the fast flowing George Creek. It was too boggy for us to even consider free camping there.
We carried on to Daly River (pop. 468) being so impressed with the lush green vegetation and tropical feel to the place. The area is popular for recreational fishing, being regarded as one of the best places to catch Barramundi in
Daly Waters pub
My old Akubra hat Australia.
European discovery of Daly River was in 1865 by Boyle Travers Finniss, the first premier of South Australia. At the time the Northern Territory was part of South Australia. The area lay untouched until copper was discovered in 1882.
Daly River town was the scene of some particularly bloody exchanges between the local Aborigines and the miners.
On the way to Daly River we passed through Tipperary Station (518,427 acres) The two adjoining properties Elizabeth Downs and Litchfield Stations are operated with Tipperary as a single operation of close to one million acres.
Tipperary is divided into 72 paddocks with an average size of 7,413 acres each. It was established in 1914.
When we got home we had a BBQ behind the van and listened to country music coming from a presentation function being held at the showgrounds.
19th March 2017 34C and today we went to Litchfield National Park. Our first top was at Buley Rockhole where we found a long series of cascading plunge pools. It was mid-morning and already there were several families here with more arriving all the time. We took pictures and fled. Next stop was Florence
Adelaide River
Robin Falls free camp Falls which we viewed from the lookout platform. This is double plunge waterfall leading to a popular swimming hole, which also was filling with visitors.
Next was Wangi Falls, a segmented waterfall on the Wangi Creek, sadly it was impossible to swim there as crocodiles had been sighted. We climbed through rain forest which was so damp and humid and quite an experience. It was here we spotted a colony of bats high up in the trees.
Tolmer Falls is closed to swimmers but there is a wonderful tree top lookout to view the falls cascading over two high escarpments into a deep plunge pool. This I home to rare ghost bats and orange nosed horseshoe bats.
There are also magnetic termite mounds with a north-south orientation to control the temperature inside the mounds. Plus some huge cathedral termite mounds.
We had to return along the same route as the gravel road north was closed due to flooding.
We did however turn off to visit Rum Jungle Lake and the town of Batchelor.
Rum Jungle is where a uranium deposit was found in 1949 in old copper shafts. The area derives its name from
Adelaide River
Charlie the Buffalo at the pub an incident when a thief stole 750 ounces of gold from miners after getting them drunk on rum.
The uranium mine was closed in 1971. The mining company Conzinc (part of the Rio Tinto Group) have consistently denied any responsibility for rehabilitation. This led to the mine becoming known as one of Australia’s most polluted environments due to the oxidization of sulphides and the release of acid and metals into the East branch of the Finniss River. One of the problems associated with rehabilitation of R Jungle Creek South is that, after mining ceased the area was converted into a lake and, as the only water body in the Darwin region not infested with salt water crocodiles the site quickly became very popular with locals and Darwin residents as a recreation reserve. Millions of dollars have been spent to no avail on the tailings and the site remains radioactive. Contamination of groundwater has yet to be addressed.
We went to Rum Jungle Lake, which looked in need of maintenance and was very run down, we now know why.
Bachelor was built to accommodate mining personnel and now has a population of 336.
A site near Rum
Adelaide River
Storm clouds gathering Jungle was selected as one of two demonstration farms ( the other was at Daly River) established by the Commonwealth to investigate the economic potential of the Northern Territory following the administrative hand over from South Australia in 1911. The farm operated until 1919 with mixed success. An airfield was built in 1933 and substantially improved upon during World War II where it was ued by RAAF and US Army Air Force as well as the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force.
The town is home to Batchelor Institute delivering higher education to indigenous students from all over Australia. There is also a miniature replica of Karlstejn Castle in the Czech Republic.
Litchfield National Park was a great day out, just a pity the 4x4 roads were all closed so we missed out on a few things. Having said that, we are so pleased to have seen in during the ‘Wet’ when it is so lush and verdant.
20th March 2017 We woke to pouring rain and a flooded grass caravan parking area. We were worried we would get bogged but, driving slowly we made it out onto the sealed road. It rained all the
Litchfield National Park
5m high cathedral termite mound way to Howard Springs Caravan Park, 25kms from Darwin CBD and our home for the next few nights.
From now on the temperature will not vary too much from 24C minimum to 32C maximum over our stay in the Top End.
Darwin (pop. 142,300) is the capital of the Northern Territory and a former frontier outpost situated on the Timor Sea.
In 1839 HMS Beagle sailed into Darwin Harbour and named the region Port Darwin after their former shipmate Charles Darwin. The settlement became the town of Palmerston, renamed Darwin in 1911. The city has been almost entirely rebuilt four times, following devastation caused by the 1897 cyclone, the 1937 cyclone, Japanese air raids during World War II and Cyclone Tracy in 1974.
Around 10,000 Australian and other allied troops arrived in Darwin at the outset of World War II, in order to defend Australia’s coastline. On 19
th February 1942 at 0957, 188 Japanese airplanes attacked in two waves. It was the same fleet that attacked Pearl Harbour. The attack killed at least 243 people and caused immense damage, especially to airstrips and planes. Many were left homeless and Darwin was abandoned as a major naval
Litchfield National Park
Another huge cathedral mound base. They were the first of many raids on Darwin.
On 25thDecember 1974 Darwin was struck by Cyclone Tracy, which killed 71 people and destroyed 70%!o(MISSING)f the town’s buildings. 30,000 people of a then population of 46,000 were evacuated in, what turned out to be, the biggest evacuation in Australia’s history.
Darwin is closer to the capitals of five other countries than to the capital of Australia, Canberra (3137kms).
Darwin has a tropical savannah climate with distinct wet and dry seasons and the average maximum temperature is remarkably similar all year round.
21st March 2017 Today we went to check out Darwin and a couple of beaches, not that you can go in the ocean due to crocodiles and box jelly fish. We had lunch at Darwin Trailer Boat Club overlooking the Timor Sea. Our first look at an ocean since the Southern Ocean way down in South Australia.
The caravan park is not busy but has a family of about with peacocks who are noisy and a nuisance, constantly visiting looking for food, which we never give. All parks in Darwin are expensive, we were lucky to find a good deal on
line for this one, stay 4 pay for 3. Normally we wouldn’t stay at a Big4 due to price but this deal was the best price in town.
22nd – 23rd March 2017 We went shopping stocking up on food and fuel and then did some cook ups. Raining every day now, but not for long and the sun is out again. The wet season is nearly over but has been a big one this year with over 3m of rain in Darwin itself so far.
24th March 2017 The big day. We set off for our final destination for this part of the adventure – Dundee Beach. We went south out of Darwin turning northwest onto the Cox Peninsular Road passing the turnoff to Berry Springs Nature Park, which we will visit whilst here. We had several places with water over the road but Rocky Creek was the worst., we just went for it after watching a small truck go through. Turned off onto a dirt road which we followed for some time and eventually saw the sign “Welcome to Dundee Beach” We were here, 125kms west of Darwin, found the address we
wanted and left the van to walk up the long drive and came across….paradise and our home for the next five weeks…….
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