The distance between Coober Pedy and our next stop in Port Augusta was a little over 500 kms. You may ask what is there to see along the way? The answer is (apart from two roadhouses and an artificial town) absolutely nothing!
The landscape changes slightly from open desert plains to grey saltbush.
After a a couple of mild days, the temperature had gone back up to the mid thirties (Celsius) and the wind was blowing strongly. There was nothing in this open desert enviromnment to stop it. On the times when I stepped out of the car to take a photo, I could barely stand. It was impossiblke to stop for a cuppa unless I positioned the car so that we were in its lee. Our empty coffee mugs were simply being blown across the table. However, the wind was a northerly, and we here heading south, so we did gain some extra fuel efficiency.
After pushing along for around three hours, we saw an apparent mirage in front of us. It was not a mirage – actually Lake Hart, a giant salt lake. This area to the north of Port Augusta has many of these salt lakes and clay pans across the landscape. After some recent rain it was holding a few centimetres of water.
We continued through this country for many kilometres, finding more examples of large clay pans along the way.
After more than three hours on the road, we saw some buildings in the distance. This was the town of Pimba. It was hardly a town. More like ‘Spuds’ Roadhouse with a few buildings around it.
In fact, it was the turn off to Woomera which lies about six kimetres to the north. The name of this town comes from an Aboriginal word that means a stick that is attached to the end of a spear and used for extra leverage to throw the spear more forcibly.
Woomera is an artificial town built to provide accommodation and facilities for personnel – scientists, technicians and ancillary staff – who came to work at this isolated experimental station, used to test rockets, weapons and missiles. Hence the association with a spear and throwing stick. It is now is home to a RAAF base. I felt a sense of deja-vu as we drove into the town as all the buildings looked very similar to the ones that I had seen in army bases during my National Service days. I’m sure that the RAAF and the Army share the same architects.
During the 1960s, Woomera had a population of over 5000. Today the population is around 120. Over the years it has changed from an important location for experimenting with rockets to other civil purposes. Between 1999 and 2003 it was used by the Federal Government as the Woomera Immigration Detention Centre. It housed unauthorised asylum seekers who had arrived in Australia by sea. God help anyone who was sent here!
Today Woomera township is open to the public. Its main appeal is the Woomera Heritage Centre and the Missile Park.
It was too windy to eat outdoors so we retreated back to Spuds Roadhouse for a sandwich and piece of carrot cake.
The last 200 kms of ‘nothing much’. saw us arriving in Port Augusta. We have stopped there on a couple of occassions on our travels and have always thought of it as being a plain old town with little going for it, Perhaps this view is relative as we did enjoy getting the car washed and seeing some of the typical South Australian stone buildings around the town again.
By now, we had travelled the entire distance across the continent from north to south While the direct distance is 2,964 km, we have added another 1500 kms in sight seeing mileage.
After a good night’s sleep, we were ready to hit the road for Adelaide where we would relish a rest day. We had dinner at a local pub where the manager suggetsed that rather than drive down the unnspiring highway to Adelaide, we shouid travel through the owns of Crystal Brook and Clare. This was an excellent suggestion and we enjoyed this different road that meandered though wheat fields and vineyards.
Crystal Brook is a quiet rural service centre in the heart of some of South Australia’s most productive sheep and wheat country. It describes itself as the town “Where the Flinders Begin”. It has a lot of charm and a lovely main street planted with peppercorn trees.
It was very pleasant to see green fields again and to drive through small towns that each had their own character. Ths one seemed be a town attached to a grain silo.
It had begun to rain when we left Port Augusta and we droive through gentle rain for most of the day. The dark sky created some good light for photography and was very vivid against the yellow fields of canola.
Clare is the major township in the Clare Valley which is noted for its vineyards and wineries. Reisling is the dominant variety of grape grown in this area. The town is surrounded by vineyards (mainly to the south), with some cereal cropping and sheep farming. It has a long history (settled in 1839) and some of the old buildings live on to this day.
We reached Adeliade by late afternoon after expereincing very heavy trafic that we have become very unused to.
Woomera buzzed in the early ‘80s with many US Airforce members at the “ sister spy” facility to Pine Gap. A fun place to visit particularly July 4th.
Glad you enjoyed Crystal Brook Bruce. I lived there for 5 years in the ’60’s. Loved the town and have been back many times.
You have experience in the last few drives how ancient Australi’s topography and soils are. A reminder that despite its large land mass there are limits to the size of population that can be supported in this remarkable ancient land of ours.