There and Back Again 2022 – Day 12

Port Augusta morning at Bird Lake with the Southern Flinders Ranges on the horizon.

Wind farm south of Port Augusta

Wind turbines and the Southern Flinders Ranges

Horrocks Pass through the Southern Flinders Ranges

Willowie Forest in Mount Remarkable National Park

Galah in Willowie Forest

Western grey kangaroos have a dark patch on the elbow

Melrose Place? No just a place in Melrose – the 1854 North Star Hotel

Canola field and silos outside Melrose

Canola

Mount Remarkable rises to 960 metres above sea level and is the backdrop to Melrose.

And in Miss “Ewe” Congeniality, Contestant number 73 – ” What is the thing our society now needs the most?”

Ewe 73: ” Baaaa…..Whorled fleece.”

Yes, we miss ewe too. These little guys were also lamb-enting the impending loss of their tails.

Wirrabara silo art – depicting past links to the forestry industry and the local flora and fauna such as the Red-capped robin.

Laura is a town in the mid-North of South Australia. This is the old mill on the outskirts of town.

An old church in Laura

Our Hannett family ancestors lived here including Great Grandma Matthews’ family when she was young. Her father and grandparents are buried here.

I was being a sentimental bloke and just had to see the sculpture of CJ Dennis. Author and poet C.J. Dennis spent the greater part of his youth in Laura when his father owned the long gone Beetaloo Hotel.

To a little town that nestles down; By the hills of Beetaloo
Where a youth dreamed dreams of fair renown; And a man’s ambition grew.
‘Twas here his earliest songs were sung; And he won his earliest praise
From men who were young when he was young; In the long gone Laura days.

from “Laura Days” By C.J. Dennis

CJ Dennis was frustrated he couldn’t get phone reception with his mobile carrier and regretted not getting Telstra.

We met this family in the main street – they were just your typical bronzed Aussies.

This young pup is still learning his basic maths – how to round up 1.

Laura is home to the Golden North icecream products widely sold throughout Australia but especially in South Australia.

It is obvious Laura is an ice cream town – the streets were mostly desserted.

Golden North cows – cream of the crop.

Sculpture to honour George Goyder. We cross Goyder’s Line that runs across South Australia joining places with an average annual rainfall of 250 mm. North of Goyder’s Line, annual rainfall is usually too low to support crops with the land being suitable only for grazing. The vegetation is mostly saltbush to the north and north-east of the line. George Goyder was a South Australian Government Surveyor for 40 years. He developed the “line” in 1864 after a period of drought.

We will never roo the day we visited Orroroo.

Orroroo – always worth a stop at the Gum Tree Cafe for their splendid pies.

Crusty piefection

Historical humour: The Post Office and Telegraph Station was opened in 1880 by the South Australian Postmaster General. When first asked to establish a Post Office in the town he is supposed to have said: “Dear me! There are only two letters in Orroroo. What do you want a post office for?“

Early Settlers Hut from the late 1870s is an early example of a clay pug-and-pine cottage.

Tank Hill Lookout over the Orroroo district

1896 Rock Poem carved on rock near Pekina Creek – two Poems were carved in the rockface by a local boy D McDonald in a secluded gully. The latter of these poems, carved in 1901, was a sentimental expression of farewell to the district before the author departed for America. I suppose he ode the town that much.

In the gully that has the Rock Poem carvings.

Giant River Red Gum on Pekina Creek

Mallee ringneck at nesting hollow in the giant River red gum

These guys helped galvanise the community spirit in Orrroroo

Peterborough has pinned its tourism hopes as a train museum town with a few different railway attractions. It was hard to gauge how on track they were.