Blogs from Port Augusta, South Australia, Australia, Oceania

Port Augusta lies at the northern end of Spencer Gulf. Matthew Flinders in his ship the Investigator, explored the northern Spencer Gulf area in 1802, searching for the legendary Australian inland sea, and water supply in general. In the 1840s pastoralists settled in the Flinders Ranges. A port was needed to cart wool and wheat to England, and Port Augusta had a fine natural harbour. After several droughts, many of the pastoralists gave up, and the importance of the port faded in the early twentieth century. Fortunately, the government decided to build the Transcontinental railway across the Nullarbor to Perth, and established the railway headquarters in Port Augusta. The town has benefited from the railway ever since. Our first destination was to the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden, taking the opportunity to visit the Matthew Flinders ... read more

I hadn’t finished my last holiday before I was planning the next. Inspired by my weekend last year in Barellan, I purchased a Toyota Hilux and set about kitting it out for some touring and offroading so I could see more of my own country. I set my sights high and planned a trip across the breadth of Australia, from my home in Sydney over to Western Australia to visit my brother and his family, and my favourite wine region of Margaret River. I had a couple of test runs with local four-wheel driving and camping trips throughout the year, and before I knew it, it was time to leave on the big one. My aim for the first day was to spend the morning packing the car, and to reach the NSW regional city of ... read more

The Eyre Highway, Ceduna and Port Augusta 8-17 October 2018 From Esperance we set out north to Norseman to pick up the Eyre Highway to travel east across the Nullarbor (means no tree in Latin). In fact the Nullarbor itself is only part of the journey and for the first two days there were plenty of trees. We intend to cross the area from the south of Western Australia to Adelaide in the south east along the edge of the Great Australian Bight, by way of the huge arch of land along the Southern Ocean. This is approximately 3,000 kilometres. However we may make a few detours en route. This road is meant to be one of the world's great road trips. Nowadays it is much easier than in the past. The road was constructed in ... read more

Day 1 - Left Melbourne at 5 am with 1,078km to drive. Nothing much in this trip although the first 200 hundred kilometers was a little scary due to fog. It was dark and foggy and the sun was still asleep so could not see much at all. Let me just say my attention level was so high I should have got a headache from concentrating too much. It was pretty funning thinking back to this morning. My wife was relaxed in the passenger seat having a catch up sleep and here I was fully awake with eyes popping out of my head with concentration to ensure I stay on the road and within site of Xavier‘s ute. I was just lucky Xavier was paving the way in front of me and all I had to ... read more

Saturday 1 October – AFL Grand Final Day (that Australian Football League for my international friends!). Back to Port Augusta The Whyalla caravan park was excellent, with large drive-through bays which were gravel. There was also plenty of lawn around. We enjoyed the warmer weather and certainly made the most of it as the forecast was for more storms on Sunday. We were hoping they won’t be too bad as some areas in SA were still being flooded. Before leaving Whyalla, we had a drive around and then headed 70km north back to Port August. We had a fantastic lunch after setting up our vans. It was heading on towards time for the Big Game. We drove into the CBD and found the Hannahville Hotel as I wanted some ‘atmosphere’ to watch the AFL Grand Final. ... read more