Moama to Port Augusta

As with the last trip, the starting flag was waved at Moama in NSW, just across the border from Echuca on the Murray, and we set sail for Swanhill. We didn’t get away until quite late because TJ kept asking awkward questions about our traveling gear for which I didn’t have very good answers. So we messed about and sorted most of his problems (emphasis on his problems - not mine) , finally getting away around 4PM - a late start in anyones book.

We got to Swanhill and overnighted at Pental Island caravan park, which is off the main highway. Good quiet place to start the trip especially as we learned, on the day of our departure, that school holidays, although finished in Victoria - were just starting in Sth Australia. Gosh, how lucky are we ...? Sounding cynical I know, but then I’m getting old and that’s part of the job description they tell me ... the short of it was that there were no barking dogs and no kids being kids. Just us old people being - well, old and grumpy ....

The next day, we headed off to Port Augusta, stopping at Mildura for lunch. The drive through what was left of Victoria and then on into Sth Australia was uneventful. The car just chugs along without missing a beat - diesels don’t seem to struggle the same as ordinary combustion engines when pulling through the hills. The high torque at low revs is one of the reasons they are such a great tug.

Anyway, we made Port Augusta around 8.30pm after a very long day of driving. This will be, by far, the longest leg we do on the trip.

So if you’re traveling through South Australia you could be forgiven for ignoring those signs that say “Goyders Line” - sometimes with an arrow. I did on the first trip through these parts in 2011. But thanks to some friends of mine (thanks Ineke and Rod), I am now the wiser. In 1865, the South Australian Surveyor General George Woodroffe Goyder was asked to survey the northern areas of the state in order to define the southern most limit of the drought of 1864-65. In defining this limit, he established what is now called the “Goyder Line” which even to this day, defines the areas to the north of which there will be (in general) less than 300 mm of rain annually, which is considered insufficient to support farming. In the 1870’s, several years of good rains convinced some people to ignore Goyder’s advice and they commenced farming north of the line. In the 1880’s a series of dry years wiped them out. Who said old people are out of fashion !. I know these things because the older I got when my parents were alive, the more intelligent they (my parents) became (old joke rehashed) - funny ‘bout that ... One final point; the B64 in SA is the Goyder Highway.

Our stopover at Port Augusta is like a staging stop so that we can get ourselves organised for heading further north. You don’t have access to the same facilities as you do in a major city and you can expect to pay a premium - at times a considerable premium - for both food and fuel. For instance, my brother is currently ahead of us by some 10 days and he told me couple of days back that the cost of diesel at Kings Canyon is around $2.30 per litre. I can understand that because  throughout the wet season, these Roadhouse owners only get essential trucking through these areas and the cashflow must be something terrible during those times. So even though it hurts the wallet, what you’re really paying for is for some robust bloke/woman (and there are plenty robust women outback) to maintain a service all year round that would otherwise not allow rubbernecks like me and TJ to do what we’re doing. So we just suck it up and accept it - no point augueing otherwise that robust woman I referred to earlier will just give you a withering glare that'll send you slinking back to your car.

Back to Port Augusta: Port Augusta has a long and salubrious history. It was founded around 1852 by Alexander Elder. Because of its location at the head of Spencer Gulf, it became an important shipping port for wool in particular and was an active operational port up until the early 1970‘s. Wealthy pastoralist Sir Thomas Elder (after whom the current company Elders is named I suspect) was responsible for bringing the first camels and Cameleers to Australia in or around 1860 - although he was in fact pipped by John Horrocks who, in 1846 brought “Harry”, the first Camel, to Australia for the purpose of exploration. Sadly, whilst in the process of loading his gun to shoot a bird, John Horrocks was bumped by Harry who lurched sideways, causing Mr Horrocks to shoot himself instead. He died several days later, and it was his death wish that Harry be similarly removed from among the living, not out of revenge, but rather because of the potential for ill treatment from prejudices against camels existing at the time.  

The Cameleers who worked the camels were 
commonly referred to as Afghans, even though they came from both the northern parts of India (now known as Pakistan) and Afghanistan. Thomas Elders was aware of the efficiency of camels operating in arid areas through previous experience overseas and he established a camel stud at Beltana which provided camels for several of the great exploration undertakings in the state at the time. The efficiency with which the Cameleers and the camels worked gave them legendary status, to the point that the initial train service that ran between Port Augusta and Alice Springs in 1929 was referred to as the Ghan. During the building of the rail line throughout central Australia, the Afghan Cameleers and their camels were typically located at the rail head (furthest point of the rail line) to pick up the freight that came up from Adelaide and Port Augusta and take it to the final destination. The camel trains would also bring wool bales back to the rail head from the outlying sheep stations for transport back to Adelaide and Port Augusta. So, camels play an important part in opening up the interior of Australia to commerce and settlement. 

I’m sure Harry would have approved.

Today, the rail service now runs between Adelaide and Darwin with the northern most section only being completed in 2001. It still retains the Ghan branding but traverses a line that more closely tracks the Stuart Highway.  The old heritage line tracked via the Flinders Ranges to the east and then on up through Leigh Creek, Maree, Ooodnadatta and then Alice Springs.

Visited the Wadlata Outback Centre today (April 17). Anyone visiting Pt Augusta should pay a visit - it gives a good overview of what you can expect to see on your travels throughout South Australia and the outback regions. 

The adjacent photo shows one of the exhibitions in the centre - the seat you see in the foreground is part of the pedal radio designed and developed by Alfred Traeger in the late 1920’s. The radio is on the table and is powered by a generator which gets its power from the person pedalling. The microphone is in front of the radio and I can well imagine many a breathless conversation resulting more from  energetic pedalling than from exercise of another energetic kind ...... but at its origin, the pedal radio started out as a means of transmitting morse code. It was then developed into a radio system that culminated in the founding of the “School of the Air” for those in the outback that I remember reading about when I was a kid.... I just wasn't told about all that breathless exertion.

Traeger, in combination with the Rev John Flynn, was also instrumental in establishing the the predecessor to the current Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), which operates throughout most of outback Australia. The RFDS has been responsible for saving many lives over many years and has achieved legendary status throughout the outback. It’s services are provided free of charge to whomever requires them - regardless of where the patient comes from - and survives only through limited Government financing, supplemented in the main by public fund raising. They are, in my humble opinion, an organisation worthy of support without reservation - this is not a paid advertisement, I just know a very worthy organisation when I see one. 

All along the major highways you will see designated aircraft landing areas on the road. This is preceded by a sign with the outline of an aeroplane in black. Some 100 metres on are the "piano keys" painted on the road, followed by a very straight stretch of road that culminates, after a couple of km, in another set of piano keys. At some point, there'll be a windsock and along the side of the road on both sides, the surrounding scrub is cleared. So if you're driving along any of these roads and you suddenly get a windscreen full of an aeroplane coming at you, that immediate urge to panic and swerve off the road is catered for by the absence of trees and other flora that may cause you to have a serious accident, which could have you too requiring the services of the RFDS. I think the whole thing is a well thought out strategy.