Travel and Discover
Bonsai conifer growing out of sandstone, Mintabie
Discover things you never knew existed by combining a bit of research and exploration with your next trip to the Outback. As I started travelling I became fascinated by the lonely graves scattered along the roads. When I inquired about them most people were exceedingly helpful, often pointing out where to go or who to see for more information. This gave an added dimension and a bit of adventure to the journey. There are a multitude of things to research or discover in the Outback. Here are a few others I can think of on the spot. • Abandoned homesteads: When Goyder, the Surveyor General, toured Northern South Australia it must have been an exceptional year. He came back to Adelaide praising the fertility of the country he had seen and recommended encouraging settlement and intensive farming in the area. Subsequently the Government handed out small farming blocks throughout the Flinders Ranges and the Northern Plains. One of the pre-requisites of the land grants was the building of a substantial dwelling on the land. For many settlers that was about as far as they got. They discovered what Goyder had missed. In a normal year this country is marginal farming land at best and only fit for light grazing of stock. The early settlers did a great job of building their homes and many ruins remain today. They make very popular photographic studies and research subjects. • Tracks of the explorers: Pick a lesser known Australian explorer and research the route of his expedition then try to follow it on the ground. One such was Warburton, who explored the Oodnadatta track area, but little is written of his journeys. Recently Phil Gee, of Australian Camel Treks, discovered a marked rock referred to by Warburton in his journal. This had remained hidden for over one hundred years. • The Old Ghan Railway: This is a popular trek but there are still mysteries and obscure places to discover. There were many mysterious deaths along the line while it was being built and during its operation. The old steam trains needed water regularly and it is fascinating to discover the old bores and dams along the line as well. Start your research with Basil Fuller’s, The Ghan. • The Overland Telegraph: In an astonishing feat of design, planning and engineering this line was built across Australia in just two years. Though most of the line has been removed or stolen, a few original wooden posts have been preserved and in some fairly remote areas groups of the later steel posts and telegraph line are still intact. This was once the main route for all travellers heading north for various reasons. The OT has a fascinating history. • Rare and endangered birds: I once read a murder mystery set in the Australian Outback and based on a private expedition to search for the endangered and rare night parrot. It was a great story and has kept me interested ever since. There are other rare species in the Outback worth finding and recording. • Mammals of the Night: To escape the hot daytime sun many of Australia’s outback animals have evolved to become nocturnal. Visit the Nocturnal House at the Desert Park in Alice Springs to see how many there are. Some of these can be seen with a spotlight when you camp in secluded areas. You can also see their tracks early in the morning on the sand hills before the wind erases them. We once found a supposedly extinct Long Tailed Dunnart in our opal mine on Lambina Station and another miner discovered and photographed the very elusive Marsupial Mole at the Mintabie Opal Field. • Follow Watercourses: Some really adventurous modern day explorers have taken advantage of rare floods in the Outback to navigate the normally dry creeks from source to outlet. Follow the course of the Finke River, the oldest river bed in the world. Read Strhelow’s book, Journey to Horseshoe Bend, which describes his family’s desperate journey along the river in an attempt to save his father’s life.
• Types of Stockyards and Fences: Though fences are rare in the true Outback, the ones that do remain are examples of a variety of materials and design. Look for the various types of wire, barbed wire, and knots used by the pioneers. (A fencer’s wire knot often was, and still is, his trademark). Note the sturdiness, quality and craftsmanship of the wooden stockyards and strength and longevity of the rare stone yards. • Disused Roads: The main roads have changed over the years to detour around flood prone areas or because of shifting sandhills. Some of these make interesting side tracks to explore. • Survey Cairns: These are everywhere in the Outback. For those with a sense of adventure and a good level of fitness it would be an interesting exercise to climb to each of them, mark them with a GPS, and upload the details to Google Earth or similar. One such cairn, just south of Kulgera NT is the central reference point of all surveyed points in Australia. • Mound Springs: Much of the Outback covers the Great Artesian Basin and the water makes its way to the surface in a myriad of springs and soaks. The most fascinating of these are the mound springs along the Oodnadatta Track, but other springs occur over a large area. • Flowing Bores: The various Government bodies are gradually reducing the number of freely flowing bores in the Outback to conserve our diminishing water supplies. However a few remain to preserve an environment that has developed around them over 100 years or so. The flowing bores that remain have developed unique mini environmental areas which contrast graphically with the surrounding landscape. • Rare Trees: Look for the Acacia Peuce or Waddy Tree which is only found in three or four places in the world. Discover the Minaritchie or Red Mulga with its unique bark, the unusual Leopardwood tree, the unique Livistonia palms and the unusual bottle trees of Western Queensland. • Aboriginal Petrographs: These stone chippings found in the rocky areas of inland Australia are usually so old that aboriginals have no knowledge of their origins. As such they are rarely considered to be sacred sites but are still classified as areas of considerable cultural importance and need to be preserved. We even found a small gorge on the Mintabie opal fields with depictions of animal tracks, water symbols and other mystery symbols. There would be many such sites still undiscovered. • Abandoned Mines: The Outback is littered with the remains of shattered dreams and tales of good fortune associated with early mining. Abandoned copper, gold and opal mines can be found in most inland districts and some are shown on old maps. • Murders and Mysteries: The Stuart Highway from Adelaide to Darwin has probably had more than its share of murders and mystery disappearances and each of the old droving routes has a history of mysterious deaths. Most locals will know of the sites of these incidents. • The Min Min Lights: Reports of these mysterious lights have been recorded in many areas but the main concentration of sightings is in the Boulia area of South West Queensland. Sighting one of these lights would surely add a bit of spice to a lonely camp on a treeless plain in the middle of nowhere. • Tektites and Meteorites: Scientists believe much of Central Australia was in the path of a large meteorite shower in our distant past. I have seen many examples of Tektites found by local Aborigines and have seen what I thought were tektites at Koorliatto Waterhole. It is now illegal to take these, but they are still fascinating to discover. They should be slightly magnetic. Use a neodimium magnet from a slot car to check. • Finally,how about trying to find “Lasseter’s Lost Reef”? As you can see there can be a lot more to travelling remote Australia than just visiting the big tourist attractions. Research your interests and discover adventure.
Broken Leg Opal Mine (site of Long Tailed Dunnart discovery)
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