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 Topic: Pre Carona Trip, Across Oz & Back (Pt 5)
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11/7/2020 at 3:28am
Location: Melbourne Australia
Outfit: Windsor Rapid Off Road Van + tents
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Hi all.
The weather had to improve, and it did a bit as it wasn’t raining when we left the Nullarbor Roadhouse early that morning.
As soon as we got going we were both amazed at the amount of traffic heading for the WA border, caravans galore all trying to beat the deadline later that day, so they wouldn’t have to self isolate for 14 days when they got back into W.A.
I had to wait a bit to get these pics clear of any traffic.
This is the Denial Bay Lutheran Church located on the north side of the Eyre Highway, I researched why it was built where it was, being some kilometres from Denial Bay itself, but I couldn’t find anything to explain it’s unusual location.
Inside and outside of the stained glass window at the front of the church.
Right beside it was the Denial Bay Pioneer Cemetery and this lovely Eucalypt, it’s unusual markings made by a recent rain shower.
We stopped at Wirrulla as the blurb preceding the town got us in, “Please visit our town, a town with a secret”
The secret was that although it was an inland town, it had a short wooden Jetty, a real Mcoy, ridgy didge Pier (tide was way out when we were there).
It started off as a joke between a couple of locals who said that the only difference between their town and a costal one, was that they didn’t have a pier, so when the one at Haslam (on the coast) was having their old one removed they salvaged the materials and rebuilt it here!!!!
At Poochera they had an outside museum that had some items that took our interest, one item in particular was Peter’s Humpy/house, built out of flattened kerosene tins in 1920s.
Peter Sheridan’s life was an interesting one, born in 1870 he worked at many jobs over the years, a stockman come station hand on many rural properties, a real rouseabout. He even was a barman working at the Streaky Bay Hotel for awhile, now because he never had a real fixed abode he had trouble attracting a “pretty fair maiden” for a wife.
So in his fifties he decided to settle down, build himself a home and hope that his luck may change.
This is the house he built, he also built a bunk, cupboards, table and chairs out of kerosene tins and boxes, the floor was compacted earth with wheat bag mats; quite a resourceful character!!!!!
A bit piccadilly in winter and a tad warm in summer (a slight understatement there!) Peter died in 1954 just prior to his 84th birthday, sadly he remained a bachelor all of his life. The local lasses must have been a bit choosey or highbrow, to not take a fancy of Peter!!!!!!!!
Another character from Poochera, and one definitely alive, is a very talented local called Dusty.
This is his studio/shop.
I had quite a chat to him, I’m sure that it is pretty quiet there at the best of times but with the virus taking hold and traffic and visitation down, he was so up for a bit of company and I got nailed big time Ha!!! He is however a very talented artist, here are some samples of his skills/talent.
Our next stop was at these ruins beside the road, it would have been quite a substantial building in it’s day.
Such a pity that our heritage and history are treated this way, why??
At Kimba I took Jen to Whites Knob Lookout, not for the view as there wasn’t much to see on this wet drizzly day but the reason I went there was to show her the impressive sculptures of Edward John Eyre and his faithful companion, Wylie. Created by South Australian artists Roland Weight and Marcus Possingham they were erected in 2011.
Our destination this day was Port Augusta, the first thing we did when we got there was secure accommodation then we went about seeing a few things before we hunkered down for the evening.
My favourite wreck/remains of a very old vessel is this one, called the Barge No. 4, it was built on the Murray at Manum in 1880. The last time I brought Jen here the Barge was nearly totally submerged, she wasn’t greatly impressed then, but now she was thrilled, well not really but it still was a better view than last time.
On one of the Pillars underneath the main bridge is this mural of an “Indigenous Person” painted by James Cochran. He tried to capture many cultures in the expression, paying homage to displaced peoples world wide.
The sky started to break up a bit so we quickly popped down to the wharf area, being lucky to capture these next scenes.
The southern Flinders Ranges took on some lovely hues as the light gradually faded from the sky.
As we pottered about late that day, I was again reminded of the increasing need to take all precautions re the Virus, to practice good hygiene and of course practice social distancing at all times. This reminder came from my GPS, and then I realised it was Caroona not Corona Phew!!
Before we hit the open road the next morning, I wanted to see some murals at the local railway station, they are seen on the walls of this walkway.
They depict as well as other moments in time, the use of camels to haul materials across the Nullarbor Plain for the building of the transcontinental railway during the years 1911 to 1917.
The artists that did the above work were John Turpie and Siv Grava.
One side of the walkway had an European theme/history whilst on the other side the murals depicted indigenous themes.
Gordon Waye was contracted to do the top part of the panel. He died in 2009 but even back in 1996 he was not well when working on this mural. He lived to paint and would not let his health get in the way of finishing this work. When he was sick, he would discharge himself from hospital in the morning, come down to the station to paint and then go back up to the hospital each evening!
Gordon's painting depicts his homelands in the area south of Hermannsburg. He did a self-portrait of himself in the clouds of the north panel of the mural overlooking his homeland.
The section along the bottom was painted by the Bungala CDEP Aboriginal Women who were using a room in the station as a painting studio.
Leaving the coast we headed up through Horrocks Pass so I could access some places that Jen hadn’t been to. Not the most direct way home but we would be there the day after this and I wanted to make the most of our soon to be ended freedom.
John Horrocks arrived in Australia in 1839 and soon after took up land near Clare where he built up a flock of 9000 sheep. He was also believed to be the first person to establish vineyards in the area. In 1846 he became bored with his way of life, so he set up an exploration of party of six men and stock ( he also had the one and only Camel in the country) and set out to see unexplored regions to the north.
The camel (Harry) was the sole survivor of 6 from a voyage to Australia from the Canary Islands where an attempt to import them was made in 1840.
The countryside at the bottom of the pass as it opens up to the plains of Spencer Gulf.
At the top of the pass there was a memorial to him, sadly there was not enough room to expand a little on his short but interesting life.
A little over two weeks after discovering this pass he was severely injured whilst reloading his shotgun beside a sitting “Harry”. The Camel moved suddenly causing a blast that blew off the middle finger of his right hand and at the same time knocking out a row of teeth from his top jaw.
The party struggled to get their severely injured leader back to civilisation which they eventually did but sadly three weeks after being shot he succumbed to his injuries, he was just 28 years of age.
He was the first person to use a Camel for exploration, in the future they would become the mainstay of many such journeys into the then great unknown of the Australian outback.
We stopped at Hammond, a favourite destination for many photographers and history buffs, sadly not the best of conditions to capture some of the buildings there.
That Hotel/pub was built in 1877, I liked that even though it was a long time ago and a little remote, they had tried at some stage to give it a bit of bling by jazzing up their front posts by adding this fret work between the posts and beam!!!
A local house.
This is the St Dominic’s Catholic Church, it was originally built in 1878-9 at Willochra, but when that community closed it was later demolished and re-erected and enlarged here in 1907.
It was very easy to social distance ourselves in this and other ghost towns we visited that day. Along the main street a short distance from the old pub.
That is it for this one, our next destinations would be Carrieton and Johnburgh amongst others, they and more will be covered in my next report.
Cheers,
Col and Jen.
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The worst day above ground, is a whole lot better than the best one under it. Live life to the fullest while you can.
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