As we continued west from Horsham we found that the countryside was more devoted to cropping instead of farming. We found broad acre crops of Canola, Faba Beans and Cereal Grains. The further we travelled the drier the vegetation became, that is until we reached the outer Adelaide Hills after Murray Bridge.
Before leaving Horsham, we stopped at the silo to see some stunning artwork of a local Aboriginal man. Completed in May, 2022, the Horsham Silo site shows the story of Yanggendyinanyuk, a Wotjobaluk warrior’s story of leadership, resilience and great legacy. Yanggendyinanyuk (his name means “His Walking Feet” in the Wergaia Language) was born in 1834 and during his life he was known for his extraordinary tracking skills and for his part in the first Indigenous cricket tour to England.
Just north of Dimboola, we came across Pink Lake – a small, circular, salty pink lake on the Western Highway, Its pink color comes from a natural pigment produced by salt-tolerant micro-organisms living in the salt crust. At first, it didn’t seem to have much color but as I walked closer to the water, the angle of the sun changed and I could get a hint of its pink color.
We were struck by the vivid yellow of the Canola crops along the way.
At one of these stops to photograph the Canola, my little drone came to an inglorious end after crashing to the ground. We searched for quite awhile but couldn’tt local it. I wa able recover a last photo. May it rest in peace after the battery dies.
At Kaniva, we found another painted silo – this one of an Australian Hobby bird. This bird is smaller than other falcons and is slender and long-winged. It is often seen hunting in vegetated urban areas, as well as in almost any lightly timbered country. To the left of the bird is the scented sun orchid with a salmon sun orchid.
Soon after crossing the border into South Australia, we stopped near the ‘Landrover on a Pole’ at Keith for lunch.
Officially called “The Desert Conquest Memorial” it is a strange monument to an AMP Development Scheme which turned the area around Keith from a desert into a hugely productive agricultural area. In the decade from 1950 the AMP Insurance Company funded the development of vast areas of bushland which were turned into rich farmland by the addition of trace elements. This resulted in the rapid growth of the local farmland. People relied upon the Landrover as a hardy, all-terrain vehicle getting about town. They were light and they were affordable and there were lots of them around after WW2. The roads at the time were all sand or mud, depending on the season.
A lot our drive through this area was quite boring – long stretches between towns and places on the map that were nothing more than the locaton of a property or a small collection of houses. I guess we will experience a lot more of ‘nothing’ as we travel further through more remote areas.
The little town of Coonalpyn has another painted silo. It seems to be like the rest of the town – a faded echo of the past. A vibrant cafe where we once stopped to eat is closed, as are many of the other shops in the town. I think that the service station is one of the last surviving businesses.
After crossing the Murray River, we continued on the last stretch of our nearly 500 km day travelog through the rolling Adelaide Hills towards Tintinara in the Barossa Valley. We travelled through many small towns that were originally farming settlements and vineyards. It was easy to see the semblance of the trees in the fields to the ones painted by the famous early artist, Hans Heyson.
