Into the Outback

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July 20th 2005

Published: January 3rd 2016

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Jesuit church at Sevenhills

Clare Valley

We left home at around 8am catching a bus to the Wayward Bus office in Waymouth Street, this would be the first backpacker bus tour that we had ever done and the last that my wife will ever do. Actually we would take one tour up through northern South Australia and southern Northern Territory to Alice Springs and then change buses and continue on to Darwin. There were about 20 seats on the bus which were filled by travellers from various Australian states and many overseas countries.

We hit the road around 9am and it was important to grab your seat quickly as we would spend the rest of the first trip in the same seats and I grabbed the ones right behind the driver. The first stop was a wine tasting at the Jesuit run Sevenhills Winery in the Clare Valley, before we stopped briefly at a supermarket in Clare to stock up on snacks and beer; beer gets more expensive the further north you travel. Soon we were heading further north stopping in a park in the small rural town of Laura, population 570, where the South Australia's famous Golden North ice cream is manufactured. After lunch of

Quorn Railway Station

Southern Flinders Rangers

wraps we continued heading north again making a brief stop at the mid north town of Quorn which has five pubs and is the terminus for the outback Pichi Richi steam train which has been run by a group of volunteers since 1973.

From Quorn we visited the ruined Kanyaka homestead which once supported 70 families before being abandoned in the 1888 after decades of drought, it was another 80 kilometres to the natural basin Wilpena Pound, which is located in the Flinders Ranges National Park and contains St Mary's Peak, a number of walking trails, a resort and caravan park. On arrival we put up our tents, had a meal of fish and chips before crawling into our tents. It turned out to be an extremely cold night - the Europeans on the trip were complaining about the cold which we found amusing, we had breakfast and then went for a hike in the bush. There is an old ruined farmstead abandoned due to flooding just before WWI and some lovely native bushland.

Departing Wilpena Pound a little after lunch we arrived at Angorichina Station on the dirt Parachilna Road, which has been converted to a tourist

Kanyaka Station ruins

Southern Flinders Rangers

village. We would stay here the night all crammed into the old shearers quarters, boys in one room, girls in another - Ruth and I decided to stay in one of the cabins instead. There were a few short walks around the station which we explored before joining our companions for a barbecue and drinks around the fire. The next morning we continued on to Parachilna, a tiny town with a pub that straddles the main railway line heading south, here we had a beer before continuing on up the highway to the mining town of Leigh Creek. I came here on a school trip on the train in the mid 1970's when they still had passenger trains servicing the town, the town was demolished and rebuilt in 1980 so they could mine the brown coal underneath. We stopped at the mine to take a look at some of the massive mining vehicles on display.

Next stop was Lyndhurst where Cornelius Alferink or "Talc Alf" lives in a small shack just outside of town (population 20), Talc Alf carves in talc but was not at home so probably missed out on a few sales. Five kilometres further north are

Cemetary at Kanyaka

Southern Flinders Rangers

the Ochre cliffs where local aboriginal people mined and traded in the colourful soils used by numerous tribes to decorate crafts, walls and their own bodies.

The road becomes the Oodnadatta Track from here and although in much better shape than when I last travelled this way it is still dirt and at times rough - next stop, the former railway town of Marree. It is surprising the old town still exists with the Great Northern Railway closing nearly 35 years ago; the old double story pub is impressive as is the local museum.

Two hundred kilometres further along the track is William Creek, our stop for the night, but before we arrived we saw a gypsy wagon being towed through the desert by camels, stopped briefly at an artesian bore that attracts bird life and was a good spot to stretch our legs and discovered Alberrie Creek Station where we clambered all over the strange roadside “art”. In the late afternoon we arrived at William Creek setting up our tents in the caravan parking area. I have childhood memories of dingoes prowling around here when I came through with my parents decades ago this seemed

The old homestead

Wilpena Pound

to freak out some of our foreign travelling companions. William Creek is a small town but it has a great little pub that has women’s underwear hanging from the ceilings.

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