To the Barossa Valley

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After breakfast we were ready for our long drive from Wilpena Pound to the Barossa Valley. One possible route would have been mostly back the way we came almost to Adelaide, but we decided to try the B roads a bit further east, mostly to look at something a bit different and to check out a railroad museum in Peterborough. However, the first part of the trip, past Hawker, was the same as we’d driven a couple days before. As we drove, we kept seeing ruined sandstone buildings along the road. We later found out that they were the abandoned homesteads of farmers and stockmen trying to make a go of it in the Flinders Ranges. For every successful station we saw, there were two or three ruins. In a couple cases, the ruins were next door to a modern house and barns, so maybe those families had been successful.

Peterbourgh is a small farm town, which until the late 1960s was a major railroad hub in South Australia. It was also where the three gauges of track in the state come together. OK, for you non-rail fans in the audience “gauge” is the distance between the inside edges of the rails. In the US virtually all rail lines are a 4 ft, 8¼ in gauge which is standard gauge in Australia. (If you want to know how 4 ft, 8¼ in became “standard” send Pat an e-mail after we get home.) Also serving South Australia are narrow (3 ft) gauge and broad (5 ft) gauge lines. Obviously, railcars built to one gauge cannot operate on another. At Peterbourgh there were facilities to move goods between cars and repair, storage, and switching facilities for all three. In fact, in the repair yard where the museum was located, they solved the gauge problem by running narrow inside standard inside broad gauge rails along the same piece of ground. Designing a switch for this makes Pat’s head hurt, but that’s why he’s an accountant not an engineer. Anyway, the museum was nice and had some interesting equipment including a “Baby Health” car which was used from the 1920s to the 1960’s to promote pediatric primary care in the bush. It was sort of the forerunner of mobile MRI and mammography. In the 1960’s the maintenance and switching facilities were shifted to Adelaide (diesel locomotives require far less routine maintenance than steam locomotives) and the town almost dried up. However, the main east-west line still runs through Peterbourgh. Running on this line is the Indian Pacific, a luxury passenger train from Sydney to Perth. As some of you know, one of Pat’s long held goals is to ride this train across Australia. Luckily, while we were at the Museum, the Indian Pacific passed through on it’s three times a week west bound run. It was quite a bonus to see it.

After Peterbourgh we stopped for ice cream in Burra, an old mining and farm town which had reinvented itself for tourists. There were a couple cute shops and an information office. All along our drive, we’ve been stopping at town information centers which are marked with a yellow “i” and are well marked on the signs approaching most towns. They are usually staffed by gaffers who are both knowledgeable about the area, and like to talk. Often they have a local history display and always brochures for all the attractions for miles around. Sometimes, like in Millicent, they also sell crafts from local artists. They seem to be organized by the state and are very helpful but a somewhat underutilized resource.

After Burra we pressed on to the Barossa where we met Trevor, our innkeeper and tour guide for tomorrows wine tour. His Barossa View’s B&B is another self-catering arrangement and Trevor had stocked it with enough breakfast and dinner food to feed a small army. We’re going to do another post of all the places we’ve stayed, but this one is special enough to get its own mention. We had about a 2,000 square foot 3 bedroom house completely to ourselves. There was a fully stocked kitchen, a (free) washer and dryer, a couple TV’s and virtually everything else you would need to set up housekeeping. Trevor also left a bottle of Cabernet/Shiraz for us to enjoy. We had to go out one more time before dinner because around Burra we had driven through multiple swarms of grasshoppers, so the front of car and windscreen were a mess. Six minutes with the hi-pressure wash got that cleaned up, and then it was back to the house for dinner. Instead of another restaurant dinner we decided to fix our own, which not only saved us some money but it was probably better for us as well. The Cabernet/Shiraz somehow evaporated during the evening as well. After Connie got a week’s worth of laundry done, we went to bed anticipating exploring the Barossa Valley with Trevor the next day.

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Photos

Abandoned homestead
not much left of this one

Another abandoned homestead
A bit more left

The locomotive of the Indian Pacific
at Peterbourgh SA 3/25/12

One of 24 cars
Sorry about the fence post

A post box
in Burra

Barossa View B&B
We had the house all to ourselves

Comments

[Jan]

Miami Hockey
These abandoned homesteads almost look like you're in the Wild West! I just received an email that Miami is in the hockey tournament. First round (Miami is seeded 2nd) East Division is in Bridgeport CT. Game is at 6:30 and Miami alums are meeting at 4:30. Do you want tickets? I can order them for you if you want. When they win on Friday they will play again on Saturday. I'm sure you have some pocket money left over from the trip!