The Flinders Ranges

Be prepared. If you thought Kangaroo Island was and adventure then this will be an experience which will amaze and astound. So before we start make sure you have something close by to quench the thirst, the dog is outside and the children are occupied.

Or if you just like a photo story then head off here.

Easter weekend 2012 was always destined to be an adventure; from the time that the decision was made to head out into the Outback.

It all started with finding accommodation. Much like things are always done it was a last minute decision to head off that way rather than taking one of the more conventional trips to the Eyre Peninsula or the Limestone Coast, both of which were considered. Accommodation other than camping is rather limited in the outback as the towns are sparse in number. Making use of one of the stations did not really appeal and that was seen more as holiday for a large group and to be perfectly honest sleeping in a camping environment has lost some of its appeal. After making a bit of use of the limited information from the internet (where does Google get its info from?) it came down to the Central Flinders Ranges. A bit far but after having had a look at the photographs on the web it grew into some serious desire to visit with quite a lot of anticipation thrown in for good measure.

After a few hours scouting through various holiday websites I came across the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna. First thought is where the heck is that? Thankfully even with the limited capabilities of Google Maps it could be found and it is in the middle of nowhere.

Sidenote: I think all travel websites should all be banned unless they can be specific and when ask for search for something either give me what I asked for or else keep quiet and don’t try to convince me to have a holiday which is not even in close proximity to the area I am considering and if you have a special make sure it and not that the actual hotel is offering an even better deal.

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Anyway, the room was duly booked and then the doubt set in. When we had a second look and saw this sign we started to wonder what the accommodation would look like; and feral food on the menu. Surely not! Research indicated that Parachilna has a resident population of two with some seasonal changes. Well the money had been paid so there was nothing else to do but, wait.

Driving up on Good Friday we found the main road which heads out to Port Augusta and beyond to be reasonably busy and thus plan B was invoked and at Two Wells we turned off and headed towards the southern Flinders Ranges via Balaklava to Quorn passing through Yacka, Georgetown, Laura (famous as the home of Golden North ice cream), Melrose (at the foot of Mt Remarkable) and Wilmington.

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At Laura we did make the stop to have a bit of a break as it had been quite a while since we had brekkie in Balaklava and we felt that it is our duty to have an ice cream while we did a bit of a walk.

The various towns along the route we found to be very interesting not only in the enormous difference in size but also what makes them survive. This is part of the pastoral areas of South Australia and must be large exporter of grain products as each town had its grain silos. Also what struck me was how harsh life must be in the country but at the same time you got the feeling that folk are happy and in all likelihood have a far better quality of life than we do in the large cities.

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Melrose was also a stopover and this beautiful little village will most definitely be have to be returned to for a longer stay. It is a charming reminder of early South Australia, nestled at the foot of Mount Remarkable National Park and the town serves a large rural community. Melrose is the oldest town in the Flinders Ranges, came into existence because of a copper deposit found in the area in 1840’s.

It is actually quite amazing how ore deposits scattered all over the ranges are identified as the reason for the establishment of numerous towns and many have their origin with mining of some sorts.

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From Quorn we headed north into the Flinders ranges proper and our next drivers break was at Hawker. The town is a major centre for the central part of the Ranges. It is here where travellers can get replacement tyres, fuel, etc as further up it becomes a lot less; in particular if you are heading up past Wilpena pound, Arkaroola and beyond. Following along the eastern side of Lake Torrens is not quite as bad because one has Leigh Creek and Maree before the real outback areas of Lake Eyre and the Simpson Desert.

Out here the farms are exceptionally large and farmers generally speak in 100’s of square kilometres and this is due to the arid environment that the stocking rates are low, at about one sheep per three to four hectares. Thus do the maths yourself but a famer that has a small farm with 4,000 (not uncommon) sheep needs an area of about 12,000 ha.

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At Hawker the road splits to Leigh Creek (left) and Wilpena (right) and thus we turned, went left and headed up towards Parachilna. From Hawker the scenery started to change quite dramatically as we slowly moved away from the flat pastoral lands that we had been travelling through for the past 5 hours along the southern Flinders Ranges into a lot more mountainous and on our right we could start to see the Ranges around the Wilpena Pound.

I have included this photograph (not taken by me) as an illustration of the Wilpena Pound which has Parachilna on the left and Wilpena on the right. Maybe on a next visit we will do the flight over the pound and Lake Eyre as on this visit time just did not allow that to happen.

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We reached Parachilna in the early afternoon and got ourselves checked in. What a surprise! And relief. The hotel was delightfully different and our initial impressions were that it would be ok for the three nights.

There are only a few roads through the Ranges and one of these is the road from Parachilna through to Blinman. The road through the Parachilna gorge basically follows the Parachilna River; actually let me correct that, the river is the road for the most part. The scenery through the gorge is simply stunning and around every bend a new sight awaits the eye. This is pretty much the same for any of the other roads which traverse the ranges.

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Blinman is one of the towns that has its origin in mining and it is here that a shepherd Robert Blinman, on a hot December day in 1859 discovered a copper outcrop. Gambling that there would be copper ore underground he lodged a mining application and on 1^st January 1861, he and three friends received the lease for the land that became Blinman. In 1862 they sold their lease for 150 times what they paid and under the new mining company Yudnamutana Copper Mining Company of South Australia the mine prospered under the hands of the Irish miners until 1918 when the lucrative ore deposits ran out. By that time some 10,000 tons of copper metal had been produced from 200,000 tons of ore. At the peak of its mining activity in 1869 there were some 1500 inhabitants and in 1876 the post office was established followed by a school in 1883, 1885 a police station with cells was built and the Memorial hall followed in 1896.

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Today it is a haven for the weary tourist that has come through the ranges from Parachilna or up the tarred road from Wilpena. We had a wonderful few hours here and in the vicinity while we waited for the underground tour to start and that was well worth the money. The whole tour has been very well done and walking underground along with the commentary you can just imagine what it must have been like for the miners in those days gone past without the fancy machinery that dominates the modern world of mining and you can only applaud those who came to take the risk and hopefully went away with a few Pounds in the pockets. They sure as hell deserved it and one cannot imagine a similar operation today.

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We did Brachina Gorge in two hits. The first one was from the eastern side but ended up turning back when we came to a river crossing which just looked too deep to take a chance with the car. We did the second bit from the western side the next day. Brachina Gorge is advertised as being the walk through geological history 500 to 600 million years ago. On the road through the gorge you pass numerous geological layers formed when the whole region was at the bottom of the ocean then some 500 million years ago these layers were uplifted and formed the massive rock folded mountains which we see today after the same period of weathering. All along the route the various geological layers are identified and I found this particularly interesting.

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Along the route we did the sights of the Youngoona Hut and Aroona Ruins which were extremely interesting and highlighted the fact that this was (is) also farming land. Standing at any of these you have no choice to admire the people who came out from Europe to start a new life here. Of course it also crosses the mind in that what the hell we they thinking. Remember that South Australia was mostly settled and the convicts did not really play a major role in establishing what we see today.

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Brachina Gorge is also an important refuge for the wonderful little Yellow-footed rock-wallaby which we were fortunate enough to see. These beautiful little creatures are the largest of all the rock wallabies. Unfortunately through a combination of factors such as hunting for their distinctive pelts, disease and predation by feral cats and foxes their numbers are in decline and have been declared as vulnerable by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. Fortunately here they are in their own little protected world and how well they are camouflaged.

I think that the road through Brachina Gorge was worst of the lot considering the amount of traffic that we saw one would think that somebody gets their act together and builds a decent gravel road. Obviously this area and much of the outback is seen as 4 wheel drive domain but we did very well with our little car and just took it easy.

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From the Brachina Gorge road there is a turn off which lead on through the Bunyeroo Gorge through to Wilpena. From the eastern side of the gorge we saw some fantastic views across the pound and I was glad that we had done it. Not that we had much choice as the only really passable road through the ranges was the Parachilna Gorge road of heading down south and picking up the Moralana Scenic Drive which was the way we came back from Wilpena.

About a third of the way down from Blinman to Wilpena there is the Great Wall of China. These unusual formations (basically lines of rocks topped with ironstone which rise up from the surrounding countryside and look a little like the Great Wall of China) appear in a number of desert areas of Australia. And if you look at the aerial photograph you will notice the same phenomenon for the whole range; just on a grander scheme.

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From here we also had some magnificent views across towards Wilpena in the south and through to the northern Flinders Ranges including Parachilna Gorge and the high peaks of Mounts Lucius and Elkington.

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I suppose that no visit to the Flinders Ranges would be complete without visit to Stokes Hill Lookout. It is only from here that one truly appreciates the magnificence of the mountains and the 360 degree vista that the spot affords. The photograph is a 360 degree panorama.

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While we were up here we stayed at the Prairie Hotel. Now I must be perfectly honest here and say that the hotel exceeded all expectations. The room was lovely and roomy even with it being buried half underground; which was unusual as from the window one looked out at ground level. The feral mix grill (FMG) is a combination of grilled kangaroo and emu steaks with camel sausage; and the animals are farmed, not road kill and the name may suggest and it was delicious. The emu pate is highly recommended although please don’t ask how much cream they used and I also don’t want to know; it may give my doctor a heart attack. Actually anything and everything on the menu is highly recommended.

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Sitting outside on the verandah watching the sunset is the best way to end the day while sipping at a glass of wine or a Fargher Lager (local brew). Everything evening and night the hotel comes to life with the hotel residents and campers coming to the hotel for a meal or just to sit and exchange stories of the day’s adventures. We met up with two other couples while we were there and we just spent the evening chatting away and listening to John O’Dea who provided the live entertainment on the Saturday and Sunday nights.

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John actually has a fantastic voice and has this ability to tell a story through his songs and having grown up and farmed in Orroroo knows the outback very well and many of his songs are about the lives of the outback farmer with a bit of Australian history thrown into the mix. We really enjoyed listening to him and just sitting back having a wonderful relaxing time being absolutely amazed at what we have experienced; being some of the best food ever had, with scenery in the world and that all in the middle of nowhere.

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On the Easter Monday we unfortunately had to head back home. Now generally we prefer the scenic route and thus to go home we stuck to the more northern roads through the southern Flinders Ranges taking us from Hawker through to Orroroo, Peterborough, Terowie, Burra and across to Kapunda and finally Nurooitpa in the Barossa Valley which told us that home is not that far away.

This will be a holiday that I am sure we will remember for a long time and which will always bring back some great memories and the photographs will play a role in that.

Thank you for bearing with me through this saga but much like Kangaroo Island; just giving the one page summary would not really give you anything of what we saw and experienced.

If you still want to see the photographs head in this direction.