Department for Environment and Heritage

Flinders Ranges National Park

Old Wilpena Station Living With Land Interpretive Trail

www.parks.sa.gov.au LIVING WITH LAND INTERPRETIVE TRAIL OLD WILPENA STATION

For information about features of the ld Wilpena Station is one of the most scenically spectacular trail turn to page 10. O pastoral settlements in South . A working station for 135 years, Old Wilpena Station slipped into retirement in 1985. The settlement is now a tranquil archive of pastoral history.

Old Wilpena Station is also an important Aboriginal heritage site. Wilpena Pound and the Wilpena Station lands have enduring cultural significance for the Adnyamathanha people of the .

Wilpena Government House c.1896

"Wilpena Station is one of the most significant pastoral sites in because it has one of the most continuous and best preserved histories of use in a remote setting… Almost all significant stations with a comparable history are now in ruins. " NPWSA planning document 1989

Aboriginal people, European settlers and their descendants share the pastoral heritage of the Flinders Ranges. The self-guiding ‘Living With Land’ Interpretive Trail explores the themes of self-sufficiency, improvisation and survival on the remote and isolated pastoral settlements of the Flinders Ranges.

1 ABORIGINAL PEOPLE AND PASTORAL HERITAGE “All of my brothers and sisters used to help Dad with the fencing." Eileen McKenzie boriginal people played a vital classers, vermin controllers, cooks Aand largely forgotten role in and domestic servants. During the development of South World War II many stations relied Australia's pastoral industry. solely upon Aboriginal labour. Aboriginal guides travelled into the Station interior of South employment Australia with meant that explorers like Aboriginal Edward Eyre families could during the early maintain colonial years. They contact with located springs and traditional country. influence the siting of fence-lines, sustained by an enduring spiritual soaks where base camps Cultural sites could be dams and roads to avoid damage to relationship with country and a would be established and from visited and customary traditional sites. long involvement in the pastoral which exploration parties could obligations maintained. Station industry, the Adnyamathanha extend their reach. Aboriginal rations could be supplemented by Station jobs were harder to find in people are now returning to the guides also found water for wild harvest, including rabbits from the 1950s. Increased mechanisation, land as owners and managers of ambitious settlers like the Browne the 1890s. Children could learn unstable markets and rising pastoral properties in the central brothers who later took up the first about country as they travelled with production costs cut demand for and northern Flinders Ranges. pastoral runs in the central Flinders their families. Stockmen, fencers, hired labour. Employment on Ranges in 1851. and much later, road-builders, could pastoral properties continues to decline today. European settlers claimed the The Protector of Aborigines “Adnyamathanha people did not springs and waterholes that had wrote of the Adnyamathanha Many Aboriginal groups all but measure reward for work in purely sustained Aboriginal families people in 1889, that: disappeared from the settled areas monetary terms. Food, access to and the animals they hunted. Within of the colony soon after contact. But land, permission to bring relatives 15 years the infant pastoral industry “They are also extensively in the pastoral country of the or a large family group onto the had destroyed the native economy. employed on cattle and sheep Flinders Ranges, Adnyamathanha property were also considered Aboriginal families became stations in the district; in fact, people survived as a distinct benefits of cooperating with the dependent upon ration depots for some stations are worked almost linguistic and cultural group. pastoralists. " their survival. entirely by them. They are Dispossessed after contact, but Buck McKenzie exceedingly useful and reliable Aboriginal people adapted to a among stock, many of them are changed world in a remarkably excellent shearers.” short time. They learnt the language of the Europeans. They applied old skills used in tracking and hunting, to new situations and became shepherds, messengers and stockmen. Aboriginal men and women built fences and dams, drilled bores, chopped wood, and shore sheep. They worked as scrub pullers, butchers, trackers, wool

2 3 EUROPEAN SETTLERS AND PASTORAL HERITAGE The Browne brothers‘ investments knees, forcing many lessees to yielded good returns. They abandon their runs. purchased property all over South Australia. In one year, they were the After the Great Drought , an inquiry colony's biggest exporters of wool to into the effects of drought on the Britain. Northern Pastoral Runs was commissioned. Minimum stocking Scottish and Irish immigrants rates were re-evaluated and levies provided labour on the early runs. reduced. Pastoral leases were Married couples proved more increased from 14 to 21 years. For reliable than single men. Cooks, the first time pastoralists were blacksmiths and storekeepers lived provided with incentives to carry and worked on the head stations. out improvements and manage Shepherds, stockmen, woodcutters stock more sustainably. When wire outh Australia Settlers with the and hut builders ranged across the arrived on the runs in the 1870's, Swas founded necessary cash vast properties. Teamsters carried pastoralists began to erect internal upon freedom. took up vast produce and stores between the fences. They could then divide their Strong tracts of land as runs and trading centres. flocks and herds, rest paddocks and egalitarian Occupation better manage their springs and principles Leases. Fortunes were made and lost on the bores. defined the new Undeterred by early pastoral runs of the Flinders colony. Both the grim reports from Ranges. The industry was troubled Today the pastoral community can ambitious and the explorers returning by high cartage costs, a shortage of draw on 150 years of experience. disadvantaged could from expeditions to the labour, recurrent droughts, conflict Science, technology and an evolving prosper in a self-sustaining society interior, some financed private with Aborigines, lack of fencing wisdom shaped by the land, now of farmers, tradesmen and expeditions. Small parties travelled materials, stock losses to Dingoes guide the pastoral industry in the merchants. Money raised from land into the Flinders Ranges and and a dramatic loss of land Flinders Ranges. sales would be used for assisted beyond in search of reliable waters condition from overstocking. The migration to ensure an adequate that could support a grazing Great Drought of 1864 – 66 brought supply of labour. industry. From 1851 pastoral runs the infant pastoral industry to its were founded as new 14 year What worked on paper, failed on Pastoral Leases were introduced. the ground. The British architects of the scheme had no understanding of Two ambitious young English how local climate, poor soils and doctors, William and John Browne, isolation would impact upon their emigrated to the colony during the settlement scheme. Nor did they 1840s. Using their inheritance they appreciate that the land already had financed the establishment of an indigenous population. several pioneering pastoral runs on Unpredictable climate, extreme South Australia's 'Waste Lands of summer temperatures, high the Crown'. They hired young transport costs, food shortages and energetic managers with half-share conflict with displaced Aboriginal interests in the runs they managed. people, challenged the dream. The "…men who probably could never scheme went bankrupt and the have advanced beyond ordinary Crown took control of the colony circumstances, become in a few five years after it was founded. years possessed of great wealth" William Jessop 1862

4 5 LEASES AND LESSEES HENRY STRONG PRICE PIONEERING THE WILPENA RUN

ilpena Station was a working station for 135 years. In the 1860s the ealthy investors and 2000 cattle died on the Wilpena Run Wrun covered more than 800 square miles (2070 square kilometres). Wambitious young managers during what has been called the Wilpena Pound became a separate lease in 1899. In 1923 the station was shaped the early pastoral industry Great Drought. carved up into five separate leases. What had been the Homestead Paddock, of the young colony. English became the new Wilpena Station, comprising 58 square miles (93 square doctors William and John Browne, In 1867 Henry Strong Price kilometres). In 1988 the Wilpena Station Lands were added to the Flinders financed the Wonoka, Arkaba, addressed an Inquiry into the Ranges National Park. Wilpena and Aroona runs. To each impacts of drought on the new manager they offered a half Northern Runs. "I now consider 1851 Waste Lands of the Crown Henry Strong Price share interest, a powerful incentive my run greatly overstocked, Lease (Pastoral) No 84 (154 square miles) to expand the runs. but I did not before …" 1853 Transfer of Pastoral Lease WJ & JH Browne No 84 Henry Strong Price managed the The carrying capacity for the 1855 Transfer of Pastoral Lease No 84 Henry Strong Price Wilpena Run for three years. He Wilpena Run had originally been set 1868 New 20 year leases issued Henry Strong Price then sold his share back to his at 120 000 sheep. Price advised that Pastoral Lease No 1590 & WJ & JH Browne financiers. But in 1855 Price the minimum stocking rates, upon (825 square miles) returned as manager and sole lessee which rents were based, were much 1889 New leases issued Henry Strong Price of the much expanded Wilpena Run. too high. He thought that a safe Pastoral Lease No 76 & WJ & JH Browne He paid £ 40 400 for the 825 square stocking rate for the run would be 1889 Wilpena Pound excised as a separate mile (2136 square kilometres) run. 20 000 sheep. lease No 76A 1889 The death of Henry Strong Price Eager to grow his investment, Price Through bitter experience Price now 1892 Transfer of Pastoral Lease No 72 John Maslin increased his stock of sheep and understood that he would have to 1900 Transfer of Pastoral Lease No 72 George Atkinson cattle. Around 33 790 sheep were manage his stock differently. Three shorn on the Wilpena Run in 1864. hundred miles of internal fencing 1902 New Pastoral Lease No 932 JP Lewis was erected on the Wilpena Run. 1914 Transfer of Pastoral Lease HA Lewis The Far North was devastated by Paddocks could then be shut off to No 932 drought from 1864 – 66. Tens of stock and feed held in reserve. 1920 Transfer of Pastoral Lease JP Lewis thousands of sheep, cattle, horses No 932 and working bullocks perished. After the drought Price again went 1922 Wilpena Pound proclaimed a Remote mining settlements, into partnership with the Browne Forest Reserve dependent upon teamsters and their brothers. He travelled extensively 1923 Wilpena Station auctioned as bullocks for supplies, were across Eyre Peninsula assisting with five separate leases abandoned. Over 20 000 sheep and the management of other runs, until 1924 Wilpena Head Station George W Hunt his death in 1889. Pastoral Lease No 1504 (58 square miles) 1928 Transfer of Pastoral Lease EA & PV Scott No 1504 1931 New Pastoral Lease No 1631 George W Hunt 1945 Wilpena Pound proclaimed a Reserve for a National Pleasure Resort 1985 Purchase of Pastoral Lease No 1631 by the South Australian Government 1988 Wilpena Station Lands added to the Flinders Ranges National Park

6 7 THE HUNT FAMILY WILPENA EATING AND ACCOMMODATION HOUSE LAST AND LONGEST LESSEE OF WILPENA STATION

widely travelled surveyor, and young George took veryone stopped at the In 1862, the manager of the Wilpena AGeorge Hunt senior could find over management of the station. His Ehomesteads scattered along the Run, Henry Price, approved a small no other place in South Australia sister would visit and reprovision Far North Road in the 1850s. settlement three kilometres east of that appealed to him more than the house. She would take the Teamsters, exploration parties, the homestead. Irishman John Wilpena. When the expansive but washing into nearby Sliding Rock. travellers, prospectors, drovers, Kirwan ran the Wilpena Eating and neglected Wilpena Station was After washing the clothes she would government officials, all relied upon Accommodation House. carved up into several lots in 1923, spread them over the rocks to dry homestead hospitality. Stock were he applied for the lease of the 58 while she bathed in the soft spring watered and depastured, travellers In 1872, Kirwan moved over the square mile Wilpena "Homestead water. were accommodated and fed, all at range to Edeowie, leaving his son Paddock". With his young son the host's expense. Richard and wife to run the George, who had just finished In 1941 George married Elizabeth business. John Kirwan became the school, George senior surveyed the Spafford. They had three children, Traffic increased as mines began to storekeeper at Edeowie and died boundary and internal fences two daughters and a son, open in the North Flinders. soon after in 1873. He is buried on of the new station George junior. Disturbed by the frequency of Edeowie Station. with compass travellers wanting food, provisions and chain. The Hunts and depasturing for stock, the With the coming of the railway in piped water managers of the runs gave their 1881, travellers began to move up There was from the support to the establishment of the western side of the ranges. much springs in eating houses. From 1862 Business slowed for the old eating work to be Wilpena accommodation or ‘eating houses’ houses and most had closed their done on the Pound to were built on the runs along the Far doors by 1890. neglected the North Road. property before homestead Henry Tilbrook travelled by the Hunts could run and five Eating houses were usually located coach to start work on the stock. Rabbits and wild kilometres a few kilometres from the Oraparinna Run in 1865. dogs had to be controlled. Fences beyond to homesteads and about a day's He recorded in his journal: were down and needed repair. water stock. journey apart. The small settlements "By nightfall we arrived at Springs were choked and had to be They also provided meals and beds for Wilpena Eating House… Several cleared out, and pipes, troughs and installed travellers, stables or yards for stock, pine huts stood there … all in good tanks installed. The Hunts began large capacity a store and often a blacksmith's trim on this my first visit to with 300 head of cattle. Gradually rainwater shop for repairs. Some had liquor them…" they built up sheep numbers, tanks at the licences. Change stations with fresh Later that evening the young running 2700 sheep plus lambs in an homestead. With good water laid on horse teams were also found in hard overseer was driven out of his average year. they established vegetable gardens, country between eating houses. bed and back into the coach by an orchard and a large European bed bugs. The homestead and outbuildings style homestead garden that was were also in a neglected state in revered throughout the district. 1924. Repairs were needed before ▼ Wilpena Eating House the men could move into the In 1985 the Hunts sold Wilpena homestead. The worst of the Station and left the district, outbuildings, including a Men's continuing grazing in central NSW. Kitchen and the original Shearers George Hunt had spent 61 years on Quarters, were demolished. Wilpena Station. In 1988 the Surviving buildings were stabilised, Wilpena Station Lands were added repaired and maintained. to the Flinders Ranges National George Hunt senior retired to Park.

8 9 2 3 EXPLORING OLD WILPENA STATION Cornerpost and Stockyards Blacksmith's Shop 1 here is no established pathway Blacksmith's Cottage Taround the Old Wilpena Station site. Entrance is along the station track that crosses the creek. Disabled access is via the footbridge below the car park. A suggested route is offered on the guide map in the front of this here were few fences on the he blacksmith's shop or 'Smithy' booklet. The sites are numbered ld photographs, journal entries Tearly runs. Sheep were Twas the hub of activity on the 1–12 as a sequence that you may and heritage surveys have shepherded by day and held in early runs. The blacksmith repaired choose to follow. The Living with O revealed that several huts were built brush hurdle pens at night. Cattle carts, wagons and drays. He made Land Interpretive Trail begins during the establishment years on ranged across station boundaries tools, wheels, nails, horseshoes, opposite the car park. the Wilpena Run. Only the Black­ and were returned during gates, well-buckets and domestic smith's Cottage and Bookkeeper's mustering. Horses were left to roam utensils. The blacksmith's services There are two sign sets at Old Hut remain. Built in 1864, the at night in search of food. were indispensable. Wilpena Station. Discreetly placed Blacksmith's Cottage was listed as stone plinths provide information Bedroom 3 in 1888, when it was Stockyards were built from red gum The original Wilpena Blacksmith's about each building. Signs are valued at £28 15s 2d ($57). It has and native pine, the termite- Shop is no longer standing. In 1888 located at ground level near the been variously known as Hut No 1, resistant pine favoured over the it was described as a pug and pine doorways. the Fencers Hut, the Bath House native hardwood. In the Home building in fair condition. It had an and the Honey Hut. Paddock at Wilpena, timber iron and shingle roof, a rubble ▼ One of the information plinths stockyards were constructed around masonry forge and gum benches. A pug and pine construction, the an old gnarled red gum. The tree It was valued at £16 15s ($35). Blacksmith's Cottage was cement- served as a substantial cornerpost rendered by the Hunt family after for several pens. The timber A larger Blacksmith's Shop was built they acquired the Wilpena Lease. stockyards are gone but the old gum in 1921 near the site of the original Early recognition of the heritage remains with rails attached. 'Smithy'. Well preserved, the value of the Wilpena Station standing 'Smithy' is of a rubble outbuildings, and regular An adept improviser, George Hunt masonry construction, with a maintenance for more than half a built new stockyards in the Home galvanised iron roof on a native century by the Hunt family has Paddock using recycled water pipe. pine frame. It has distinctive Larger interpretive signs define the ensured the survival of several early In 2002 the rails of the rusting stock­ corrugated iron saloon doors. Living With Land Interpretive Trail. station buildings. yards were replaced with steel pipe. No trace remains of a cart shed that Most of the signs will be found on was attached to the building. native pine and recycled pipe mounts. Others, such as the signs in The maintenance requirements of the Blacksmith’s Shop, Homestead pug and pine buildings are high. Garden and Motor Lodge, have The pug crumbles away over time purpose-built mounts, in which leaving gaps between the upright clever use has been made of pine slabs. Once exposed to the recycled materials. elements, buildings begin to deteriorate. Although native pine is naturally termite-resistant, it also requires protection over time when used as a building timber.

10 11 4 5 6 by termites and was not replaced. Stables Wilpena Cemetery The Store Steps leading to the upper floor, and Harness Room were later removed by George Hunt. The loading bay was renovated in 1998 with a grant secured by the Friends of the Flinders Ranges National Park.

Trying to protect bulk supplies from vermin was a constant challenge for here were few towns in the Far early storekeepers. Goods were or more than a century horses North before the 1870s. regularly spoiled by ants, mice and shaped life on the pastoral runs T F Teamsters spent months on the weevils. A novel approach was tried of the Flinders Ranges. Horses tracks, hauling produce and at Wilpena - the store has carried explorers, settlers and supplies between the remote runs suspended vermin-proof shelving. stockmen into the Far North. They and distant trading centres such as pack-saddled stores, hauled drays, Melrose and Burra. pulled carts and carriages, and ocated a short distance from the delivered mail. homestead and huts, in a small L Supplies were purchased in bulk stand of native pine, is the Wilpena and held in stores on the runs. Early Station cemetery. Only two marked "We were dependent on horses travellers relied upon station stores graves survive. However it is for all work" wrote Frederick to replenish their provisions. thought that at least three other Hayward, manager of the Shepherds, stockmen and farm unmarked graves rest beneath the neighbouring Aroona run in labourers received rations as part of bulbs that cover the ground in the 1850's. their employment 'package' well spring. into the twentieth century. Built in 1862, the Stables and Harness Room were rescued by An impressive headstone marks the volunteers in 1999. Urgently grave of an early Wilpena Station Recalling the store on the needed restoration work was manager. James Smith Clarke died Wonoka Run in 1856, Robert funded by the Friends of the suddenly aged only 38 years. Bruce later wrote: "Everything Flinders Ranges National Park. in that storehouse was of the Close inspection of the drop-slab A simple slate headstone bears the large, wholesale order…" walls will reveal differences in slab name of Henry Ryan. It is said that A rubble masonry building, the preparation. Some slabs have been Henry Ryan was an Aboriginal Wilpena Store was built in 1862. It The Wilpena Store Book adzed, others cut by chainsaw. child. However, a blacksmith is one of very few two-storey provides an inventory of stock Timbers from the original Wilpena named Henry Daniel Ryan married station buildings in the Flinders from 1902 - 1906. It also records homestead have been recycled. Caroline Kirwan, the daughter of Ranges. The store was windowless; the names of stockmen and farm In the Stables, mallee stalls and John Kirwan, proprietor of the the dark, cool interior optimised labourers employed on the native pine rails endure but the Wilpena Eating and conditions for the prolonged storage station, wages paid, rations original shingle roof had been Accommodation House. Station of food. The original thatched roof distributed and goods replaced by 1888 when the building manager James Clarke, witnessed has survived, and is laced to roofing purchased. was valued at £32 ($64). the Ryan's marriage at Wilpena in timbers with cowhide thonging. 1864. It is more likely that the It has been covered for more than a Regular entries appear for the blacksmith, or perhaps his son, is century by a galvanised iron roof. ‘Poison Camp’. Rations of flour, buried in the Wilpena cemetery. sugar and tea were allocated Other members of the Ryan family The upper floor was destroyed by together with arsenic, are probably buried at Wilpena. fire and replaced in 1899. Twenty strychnine, soda, poison sugar years later it had been eaten away and chaff.

12 13 7 Ikara - the meeting place

Indigenous Ikara - the meeting place was Australians have the developed over three years longest continuous by a small, dedicated team. surviving civilisation in the The Adnyamathanha hen European settlers arrived This sculpture has been named Ikara world. Each community has Traditional Lands here in 1851, the lives of - the meeting place. The two W Dreaming stories that describe their Association (ATLA) Adnyamathanha people changed dominant forms represent two origins and explain the formation of appointed forever. This art space, developed in akurras (Dreamtime serpents) whose the landscape. Like all indigenous community collaboration between the bodies form the walls of Wilpena groups Adnyamathanha speak only representatives to Adnyamathanha (pronounced ad­ Pound. The fluid akurra represents for their Country. work closely with Department for na-mut-na) community and the Adnyamathanha approach to Environment and Heritage staff, the Department for Environment living with land. The flat-topped The three stone engravings on the the artist Tony Rosella, a landscape and Heritage, interprets the impact akurra represents the European outside perimeter of the circle are architect and a project adviser. of settlement and pastoralism on the approach to living on land. symbolic interpretations of Adnyamathanha. It explores our Adnyamathanha Dreaming, or Muda. Ikara was launched on 28 April 2007 shared history and seeks to The large stone block, quarried from Only appropriate Adnyamathanha to celebrate the 40th anniversary of acknowledge the past, in the hope a local creek bed, represents the way community members can share the the 1967 Referendum that gave that our future together might be European settlers took control of the Muda. The stories have several Aboriginal people full citizenship one of greater understanding and land, carving it up into separate layers of meaning and explore the rights. respect. land-holdings defined by rigid spirit world, rules for living and boundaries. caring for the land. The installation sits on culturally important land at a site selected by The story grid made from locally the community. Here the sourced slate, captures the voices of Adnyamathanha share some of their Adnyamathanha Elders who speak stories. They remind us that they about family, land, traditional life, had an ancient culture before loss, the way ahead. The cracked settlement. They describe what their earth, horseshoes, fencing wire and people went through during cross symbolise the dramatic settlement. And they celebrate their changes to traditional survival – ‘we are still here’. Adnyamathanha life after Adnyamathanha sense of identity pastoralists settled the Flinders and ancestry remains strong. Ranges - a new religion, fenced land Adnyamathanha say they belong to and the arrival of hard-hoofed their land, not that the land belongs animals that were to destroy the to them. traditional indigenous economy.

14 15 8 9 10 11 Bookkeeper's Hut Pet Cemetery Homestead Garden Garage and Motor House and Battery Room uilt in 1853 the Bookkeeper's BHut and Motor Lodge are the oldest surviving buildings on Old Wilpena Station. Both have had several uses, reflecting the needs of the time. Valued at £35 11s 8d ($71) in 1888, the Bookkeeper's Hut was then a Bachelors Hall kitchen serving the adjacent Bachelors Hall. uilt in the early 1930s, the It later became the paymaster's Bgarage sits on the site of Old office, the Station office, and the Wilpena Station's first 'Government mail contractor's sleeping quarters. House'. Stone from the chimneys of The Bookkeepers Hut appears in the demolished buildings was used in Australian films ‘The Rabbit Proof the construction of the garage. Fence’ and ‘One Night the Moon’. n one corner of the Homestead eliable water, a sheltered A rubble masonry building with a IGarden is the Pet Cemetery. Rposition and deeper than corrugated iron roof, the garage was The original thatch survives in the Inspired by a visit to the Tower of average soils for the region, enabled added to a freestanding cottage that Bookkeeper's Hut beneath a London where she found a little pastoralists to establish orchards had been built at the end of the galvanised iron roof. The unusual cemetery commemorating the and gardens at Old Wilpena Station. original homestead about 1921. The Tower's pets, Betty Hunt brought cottage was retained and converted herringbone patterned floor was Bruce describes the garden on the idea back to Wilpena Station. for use as the Battery Room. A radio laid by John Wilson, a carpenter the Wilpena Run in 1856 as: communications tower now stands who is believed to have jumped "… a fair garden of figs, melons The lives of the Hunt's working alongside the old Freelite tower on ship. The building was restored in and others … for being situated dogs Bindii, Mouche, Tim, Stumpy ‘Freelite Hill’. 2002. almost at the level of and Waif and cats Felix and Spiegel creekbed, tree and are honoured with small inscribed The Battery Room housed the The Motor House was used as melon roots could cement plaques. station lighting plant for more than sleeping quarters for farm labourers reach down to moist fifty years. A bank of batteries until it was adapted for use as a earth …" garage in the early twentieth stored energy generated by a wind- century. The last and longest lessees powered Freelite. The Freelite, a George and Betty Hunt, tower with a three-bladed propeller, created a garden at Wilpena was mounted on the hill behind the that was renowned throughout homestead, known to locals as the Flinders Ranges for its old- 'Freelite Hill". Diesel generators world charm and productivity. replaced wind-dependent Freelites Flower beds were filled with from the late 1950s. day lilies, hyacinths, canterbury bells, blue bells, tiger lilies, Computerised hybrid systems that daffodils, iris, freesias, combine solar power technology snowdrops, belladonnas, and with diesel generation, are now lavender. Wisteria rambled over the being installed on stations. The pergola. hybrid systems are delivering continuous power to homesteads The Hunts grew pears, apples, and workshops. oranges, grapefruit, apricots, quinces, nectarines, loquats, persimmons, grapes and vegetables.

16 17 12 Wilpena Homestead A stone residence was built soon SPIRITS OF ENDURANCE - THE GREAT GUMS after 1860. Later, in 1888 the Wilpena Homestead was described as a substantial five-roomed stone house with French windows, calico ceilings, a stone cellar, shingle- roofed verandahs, and a detached pine kitchen. The kitchen was in fact the original Government House, which survived until the early 1930s. The homestead was given an umble or elegant, the main 1888 valuation of £403 4d ($806), residence on the early runs H excluding the verandahs. was known as 'Government House'. In the 1850s 'Government The Wilpena Homestead has House' was typically a small pug undergone many modifications. and pine hut. Posts, rafters and Following the marriage of George battens were cut from local native and Betty Hunt in 1941, several new pine. Walls were built using upright rooms were added. A kitchen, posts, often split and pugged with sunroom, office and schoolroom gravel, mud and lime mortar. Native almost doubled the floor area of the grass or reed thatch was used to homestead. The ceilings were roof the huts. Most huts had rubble lowered and the cellar filled in. arold Cazneaux was deeply moved by the River Red Gums of the stone chimneys and some had Flinders Ranges. The Sydney photographer visited Wilpena in 1937. flagstone floors. H The Department for Environment His most celebrated image the ‘Spirit of Endurance’, was inspired by a single and Heritage has funded extensive great gum, now known as the Cazneaux Tree. William Jessop visited the homestead renovations. Water and Wilpena Run in 1859. Invited to But for the early settlers, the gums were timber trees. They were felled by termite damaged building materials fence-builders and milled in local sawpits above creeks. Fencers cut out posts the 'sundown meal' in the were replaced or restored. Ceilings and used the residue for firewood. Trunks and large boughs were adzed and manager's residence he was to were returned to their original used as water troughs. observe: height. The cellar was excavated by Red gum was not used widely as a building timber on the early runs. "The most conspicuous thing in it the Friends of the Flinders Ranges Although a dense hardwood, red gum is not termite-resistant. Hut-builders … was a huge fireplace, which, National Park . being ten feet long by seven feet preferred to use the softer but naturally termite-resistant native pine. high, and seven feet deep, was 'Government House' is now used as Not all early settlers were blind to the magnificence of the great gums that capable of consuming enormous the operational headquarters for the lined the watercourses of the Flinders Ranges. After visiting the Arkaba trunks and stumps of trees…" Flinders Ranges National Park. Run in 1856, Robert Bruce was to write in his reminiscences: "What a ▼ The original ‘Wilpena Government glorious place that Arkaba Creek was in the summer time before the ruthless cross­ House’ built c.1853 cut saw of the fencers laid low so many of its … giants…"

Imposing tall red gums still trace the regions watercourses. Although many were lost during the early settlement years, a striking complement of gnarled old giants with their flared and hollowed bases have survived along Wilpena Creek. Scattered through the Wilpena Pound campground and at Old Wilpena Station are some of the finest examples of River Red Gums to be found in the Flinders Ranges. No longer harvested, the great gums have become part of the spiritual language of the land. They inspire, inform and invite reflection.

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