The Flinders Ranges South Australia

We head out north along the Barrier Highway towards Terowie before we turn off the highway and head for Peterborough, Orroroo and Hawker our next base.

Terowie has an interesting past as it is where the two different South Australian railway gauges met after money became short in the late 1800’s.  All goods being carried by rail on the wider gauge from Adelaide to Terowie had to be transhipped from one train to the other to allow the journey to Broken Hill, Oodnadatta or Northern Territory to continue along the narrower track. 

This continued from 1871 to 1937 when Port Augusta was connected to Port Pirie by the standard gauge.  During this time Terowie was the busiest transhipping stop in South Australia.  With the route now going through Port Augusta the population of Terowie dropped from over 2000 to just 250 within a very short time.   The buildings in the main street still stand as a fine example of 19^th century workmanship and remind us of this once bustling outback town. 

sign at Terowie railway station re the famous general

Terowie was also the site of the famous 'I shall return' speech by General Douglas MacArthur in March 1942.  He and his wife had fled from the Japanese and journeyed to Australia by PT boat and then by plane to Alice Springs before train to Terowie.

vehicle anyone?

what gems at Terowie

Hawker, at the base of the central Flinders Ranges becomes our base for the next few days.  We had stayed here last year on our first visit to the Flinders and after such a great time then wanted to return.  We went for a drive to explore Brachina Gorge after having a small taste last trip. 

Brachina Creek runs through the range and one can only imagine what it must be like after heavy rains.  The dry creek bed is lined with huge old gums that have flood debris piled up beside the trunks and roots that are exposed from the rushing water.  The gorge road crosses the creek many times and with water in some pools along the way and some puddles still existing Lawrie enjoys the drive.  It is amazing how clear the water is in the pools beside the road we stop to explore. 

Brachina creek rock pool

We gaze in awe at the various rock formations and the colours in the rocks are just magic.  Emus, kangaroos and eagles are just some of the wildlife seen as we travel this ‘road’. 

Lots of photo opportunities and we take advantage of that.   There are various sites through the gorge with basic camping facilities controlled by National Parks and there is evidence of a few taking advantage of these.

After passing through Brachina Gorge from west to east we then turned off to drive back towards Wilpena Pound through Bunyeroo Gorge. 

The views once more are splendid and we again come across emus and kangaroos beside the track.   They don’t seem too perturbed by the vehicles passing by.  This track is 30km long and twists and turns along the various creek beds.  Not as much water this side as the other so not as many puddles for Bruiser to play in!!  Once we re-join the main road it is then nearly 60km back to Hawker along the black stuff.  A wonderful day out and scenery to inspire anyone, and not a bakery in sight. 

twin gums lookout

The Flinders are a great place to visit and we move north from Hawker after three full days, to Copley (just past Leigh Creek) and still driving on bitumen.  Leigh Creek is a mining township developed when the brown coal mine (of the same name) started to encroach on the old township.  The brown coal (dirty coal) mined here supplies the power station at Pt Augusta which was modified to use the brown coal.  This power station supplies approximately 40% of Sth Australia’s energy needs. 

The coal is transported by train to Pt Augusta each day along a section of the Old Ghan Track with the train consisting of 161 trucks carrying a total of 10,200 tonnes of coal.  The empty train arrives between 2 and 3pm each day and departs between 5 and 6pm for the return journey to Pt Augusta.  The mine is expected to continue to 2025 with a total yield of 110 million tonnes being extracted.   So what happens if the carbon tax is introduced?  Will the mine continue, will the power station be modified to NOT take brown coal? 

Boys and their toys?

We continue to see many building ruins along the road and you cannot help but wonder at the stamina of those early pioneers who ventured out into this area with all their worldly goods on the back of a wagon.  

I noticed that there is a bakery in the village here so no doubt there will be visit to check it out.  There is a general store, garage and a pub in town (population 150) along with the caravan park that seems quite busy.  We are basing ourselves here for a few nights so as to take a drive to Maree (meeting of the Birdsville and Oodnadatta tracks) and then out to Arkaroola the following day before we head back through Hawker to Pt Augusta for a ‘mail from home’ pick up.  From there it is all points north along the Sturt Highway.