Bound for South Australia

Menindee Lakes to Burra Creek Gorge Sun. 16^th Jan

We woke early to a scenic view across the water – a room with a view! Last night’s mozzies convinced us of the need to be on the move again, so we set off to Broken Hill, passing egrets feeding in pools of roadside water, little corellas eating the paddy melon seeds and emus galore.

On through Broken Hill and into South Australia, almost immediately noticing the changing landscape from well covered green land to much more sparsely vegetated, drier expanses. As we travelled south we began to see dry, treeless ranges misted in a heat haze. Huge distances with little change, then we took a turn off to Terowie as it was signed as an historic town. Terowie – wowie! It was once a changing post between the 2 different gauges of rail line, a prosperous region because of the need to change passengers and stock over to different trains. Douglas Macarthur and his family stopped there during WW2 on his way from Darwin to the southern capitals. Now the population is tiny, the stone and brick houses and shops are still there but empty and it won’t be long before the town dies completely. An entertaining older couple volunteered their time to run the museum but volunteers for other sites are not around.

From Terowie we travelled across vast wheat-growing plains where the harvest was still taking place and there was certainly ‘sun on the stubble’ – more about Colin Thiele later!  The extent of these paddocks was amazing and the huge machinery needed to harvest and store the grain travelled the road with us. We later discovered that the deserted farmhouses in these paddocks were there because the multinationals bought the smaller farm holdings and merged them and they had no need for the housing. Who owns the food that we grow?

We continued on to the beautiful tourist town of Burra, where the art gallery is home to a number of T S Gill paintings that he was commissioned to paint in the mid 1800s. The copper mine there, established in 1845, just 9 years after the colony of free settlers was founded, was the largest in Australia and reportedly saved the fledgling SA colony from bankruptcy.  Continuing on towards the coast, we again commented on the endless wheat paddocks, the deserted houses.

We had decided to spend the night at the Burra Creek Gorge but we were amused when we arrived to find a lovely, very large camping and picnic area set next to a dry creek bed and no gorge in sight. Terminology is a wonderful thing! We found a couple of pools and set up camp, ensuring that we were not under any branches as the eucalypts there were enormous – girth around 8metres and at least 20 metres high – and most of them showed clear evidence of having dropped limbs frequently. A quiet drink beside the billabong, watching bees coming in to drink, dragonflies hovering and swarms of small insects hovering over the water. Perfect!

Burra Creek Gorge to Point Turton on the Yorke Peninsula.

Mon. Jan 17^th

Kookaburras sang of the approaching dawn, then the dawn chorus began in earnest. A lovely sunrise began our day but it became cloudy as we approached the coast. Our first stop was the information signs at Robertstown, where we learned about the ‘Goyder Line of Rainfall’. Goyder travelled widely on horseback through the SA colony and advised the government of the line beyond which settlement was unlikely to be sustained due to low rainfall. Needless to say, pressure from settlers, business and pastoralists won out and the resultant problems when people were forced to walk off their farms were faced again and again over the next century.

Wheat and a little merino wool keep this area going now and we travelled on to Eudunda, the birthplace of Colin Thiele, one of the first Australian children’s authors that I recall reading as a primary school girl and beyond. His memorial statue shows him with Mr Percival. From there we noted the large number of wind turbines set on each and every hill. Without water or coal, the SA government must look to alternative energy sources.

We arrived at the coast, enjoyed lunch overlooking the tidal flats at the tiny town of Port Wakefield, then we headed towards Androssan on the Yorke Peninsula. It was very windy and Graeme was regretting our decision to leave the Flinders Ranges for a cooler time of year. We headed from the east to the west coast of the peninsula in search of a sheltered place to spend the night. Barley is the crop here and harvesting was in full swing. Huge grain silos on the east coast and a port there to take it away by ship. Looking for a sheltered bay, we headed for Point Turton with baited breath as we were tired and didn’t want to drive any further. It turned out to be a great choice as it was sheltered from the southerlies and our site overlooked the Spencer Gulf and the coastline of this part of the Yorke Peninsula. A large pier was covered in fishermen, women and children, the water was turquoise over the sand flats and crystal clear. We soon decided that a couple of night here would not be too difficult for us to take!

Point Turton

Tues. Jan 18 and Wed. Jan 19

As we were settling into one place for a few days, it was time to take the bikes off the rack, dust them down and set off for a ride around town.  We found the store and it was run by a man who baked his own bread and pastries. Graeme was keen to try the fresh bread so we planned our day around eating our present supplies to make ready to tomorrow’s gastronomic delights.

On this perfect summer day with a temperature of around 25, a gentle cooling breeze of about 14 knots (perfect for sailing), Graeme frightened a large seal when he clambered  across the rocks at the base of the cliff to find the perfect fishing spot and came face-to-face with it. I wonder who had the biggest fright!

 I went for a long walk along the gravel walking track and waded in the warm shallows of the bay. The sand on the beaches was saturated and I sank into it – no fine white dry sand here – however it was great to have the opportunity for an extended walk. When I returned to the rocks to find Graeme, the seal was swimming directly in front of us, rolling first one way and then the other, scratching its face with its flippers and seemingly just relaxing in the water. Snorkelers just 10 metres off the shore had a great view of it. The afternoon was whiled away out of the sun, just relaxing and enjoying a day without driving anywhere. 

Dinner at the Turton Tavern was a treat. The food was as good as we have eaten anywhere and accompanied by a glass of delightful Clare Valley Riesling. The serving size was very large so we needed to walk after dinner and we discovered that Point Turton extended around the point and is a widely spread community in which most houses have beach frontage.