Reaching the Outback

Like most travel adventures, this trip has not gone according to plan… in the best possible way. Our plan was to catch a plane to Adelaide, skip up-country as fast as possible and really start our adventure at Marree… the gateway to Lake Eyre. On a previous trip (circa 2005) we had already driven all the way to Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges and had enjoyed the long lonely stretches of desert landscape. Desert is desert, right? Seen one seen them all.

The flight to Adelaide went according to plan… no surprises… Virgin Blue wanted $3 for a cup of tea (that confirmed my view... if you're cheap, its hard to be generous). The seats were cramped but the flight arrived on time. The hire car pick-up went to schedule. Avis trusted us with a 4-wheel drive RAV4. We assumed they knew we were headed for the outback class-E roads.

Our first surprise was that we had difficulty finding the Port Augusta A1 highway out of Adelaide. To Don’s delight, his new "Smartphone" came to the rescue with its mapping service. We were able to follow the blue dot on Google’s map to guide us from deep suburbia right onto the A1. The extravagant price he paid for the phone had paid for itself already already.

On leaving Adelaide, we had to check that we were not just outside Dublin, Ireland, instead of Dublin, South Australia!. The meadows were emerald green. The cows and sheep struggled to walk with expanded waist-lines. The highway was busy with big trucks delivering urgent supplies to keep the economy in top gear. This isn’t the Adelaide area we remembered!

Ruins of Kanyaka Station

We had 400 km to travel before sun-set, so we restricted our stops. The place of most interest on the first day was Quorn, a small heritage town 60 km south of Hawker (where we spent the first night). Quorn had early aspirations of being the capital of South Australia. This was during the early period of settlement when favourable rainfall made the outback appear to be an agricultural nirvana. When long-term rainfalls were better understood, the Government surveyor drew the Goyda Line that showed areas capable of supporting agriculture rather than grazing. Unfortunately, poor Quorn lay on the wrong side of the agriculture dividing line and its political aspirations were turned to dust… dry dust.

We arrived at Hawker ready for an early night. We filed into the Hawker Hotel… the only place in town to serve an evening meal. The place was deserted and we focused on the anaesthetizing benefits that a glass of red wine can deliver. At six PM, the doors of the pub practically flew off their hinges and all the travellers, truck drivers and local farmers lined up for a bit of tucker. We found ourselves sharing a table with another couple travelling the Finders Rangers. In conversation we discovered he worked in the superannuation industry and was good friends with a few people from AMP that I had met. In particular, he mentioned John Maroney who we knew was the partner with Doug Drysdale in setting up their PFS consultancy business. It turned out he knew Doug… so we had the 3-degrees of separation well and truly nailed. The couple (Mike and Maureen) told us of the trip they had completed that afternoon… along the Geological Trail through Brachina Gorge. Using their local knowledge (they had retired to the Barossa Valley and knew the Flinders Ranges reasonably well), we re-planned the next day.

Next morning, we visited the Hawker Panorama. This is a purpose built building with a 360-degree piece of art depicting the view from Devil's Peak at Wilpena Pound. We learned that panoramas are a world-wide phenomenon… with conventions in Japan, Holland and elsewhere. The local Hawker artist (we forgot to record his name) is well regarded on the world stage… and deservedly so… the art was captivating… a must-see next time you pop into Hawker. After the panorama, we were making our way out when the store-keeper said… “come and have a look at this”. he took us to his back room where he had three other pieces of the artist’s work displayed with dramatic lighting and set with supporting diorama effects (e.g. rocks in a river bed in front of a painting of river-gums). We were most impressed - both with the paintings [as above] and the price tags [around $25000 each!].