6 The Track S.A. & Uluru, Kings Canyon & West McDonnell Ranges N.T.

Mark Ryan Journeys of the Big White Wombat

Remote and unique places of Australia

Cover - The stunning colour of Kings Canyon, Northern Territory, Australia. Journey 6 This Journey of the Big White Wombat passed through the far north of and the southern part of the Northern Territory. It included a trip to the geographical ‘centre’ of the continent. 2 The geographical ‘centre’ of Australia lies in the Northern Territory. Oodnadatta Track

I hit the Oodnadatta track between Marree and William Creek where the track from Olympic Dam/ Roxby Down joins it from the south west. Although corrugated in many parts, the Oodnadatta track is very wide and generally in ‘good’ condition. The most recently graded sections, of course, being the best to travel on.

I travelled north west around the bottom of Lake Eyre South towards William Creek and travelled through the Wabma-Kadarbu Mound Springs Conservation Park

The entrance to the ‘Mound Springs’ conservation park on the Oodnadatta Track, South Australia.

bigwhitewombat.com 3 These mound springs provide a rare water source in this allow the pressure to force the underground water to the very dry part of the country. surface. Leached minerals cause the ‘mounds’ to form over great lengths of time. Many of the mounds have The mound springs lie near the edge of the Great since stopped flowing and sealed up through natural Artesian Basin where fractures in the underlying rock processes.

‘The Bubbler’ mound spring in the Wabma Kadarbu Mound Springs Conservation Park, South Australia. Older mound springs can bee seen in the background.

4 The Oodnadatta Track crosses the route of the old I had to spend a night on the track trying to fix damaged Overland Telegraph Line which ran from Adelaide to Darwin and punctured tyres. I was still running the stock tyres that and eventually on to London. came on the Ranger. These were ‘Highway tyres’. I have given them a fair bit of punishment during my ‘journeys’, One of the overland telegraph poles here is made from and they were deteriorating rapidly. I spentI stopped at the native ‘Cypress Pine’ (Callitris sp.) the other is a wrought ruins of the Peake Overland Telegraph Repeater Station, iron ‘oppenheimer pole’ that eventually replaced most of Homestead and mining buildings, about 20 kilometres east the timber poles. of the Oodnadatta Track. I was going to have quick stop and move on but my tyres were still giving me grief so I had

A couple of the remaining Overland Telegraph Line poles remaining in the country, Oodnadatta Track, South Australia.

5 Peake & Algebuckina

I stopped at the ruins of the Peake Overland Telegraph Repeater Station, Homestead and mining buildings, about 20 kilometres east of the Oodnadatta Track. I was going to have quick stop and move on but my tyres were still giving me grief so I had to try further repairs and needed to camp overnight. It gave me the chance to have a look around the place.

The ruined buildings were made from the local stone, but quite substantial. There was a Police Station, a blacksmith, the telegraph repeater station as well as well as buildings for the cattle station staff. Copper mining was attempted in the hills behind the buildings, but the venture did not prove viable.

There is still a working spring on the property, but the poor flow rate was not enough to sustain the various ventures.

The ruins of the original Peake Overland Telegraph Repeater Station, South Australia. 6 I stopped at the ruins of the Peake Overland Telegraph Repeater Station, Homestead and mining buildings, about 20 kilometres east of the Oodnadatta Track. I was going to have quick stop and move on but my tyres were still giving me grief so I had to try further repairs and needed to camp overnight. It gave me the chance to have a look around the place.

The ruined buildings were made from the local stone, but quite substantial. There was a Police Station, a blacksmith, the telegraph repeater station as well as buildings for the The Peake cemetery – a peaceful place near the Oodnadatta Track, South Australia. cattle station staff. Copper mining was attempted in the hills behind the buildings, but the venture did not prove viable.

There is still a working spring on the property, but the poor flow rate was not enough to sustain the various ventures.

There are a few walking trails around the site. One of them went to a cemetery on the top of a nearby hill.Only two of the graves had readable headstones:

• George Joseph Rolland who died aged 28 in 1887, and

• Rod Edginton who died in 1900 aged 33 years.

The 7Peake Overland Telegraph Repeater Station ruins, near the Oodnadatta Track, South Australia. The Oodnadatta Track passes near the old Algebuckina Bridge, opened in 1892 to allow Railway to travel over the Neales Riverbed.

A lot of people take the iconic shot looking along the tracks across the bridge, like this.

Made up of 19 x 30.9 metre spans, it is the longest bridge in South Australia and is on the State Heritage Register. It cost 60,000 pounds to build and was constructed by up to 352 men.

Alongside the Algebuckina Bridge, near the Oodnadatta Track, South Australia.

8 Alongside the Algebuckina Bridge, near the Oodnadatta Track, South Australia. Witjira National Park

After an overnight stop at Oodnadatta and a replacement of 4 tyres purchased from the Pink Roadhouse, I headed north along the Oodnadatta track towards Mt Dare.

I opted for the only set of All Terrain tyres available to me. They were that well known Chinese Brand – ‘Westlake.’ Hopefully, they will last a lot longer than the 17,000 kilometres I got out of the Bridgestone highway tyres. Although, I have to admit, I did punish them a fair bit.

We’ll see.

The ruins of the original Peake Overland Telegraph Repeater Station, bigwhitewombat.com South Australia. 9 New ‘All Terrain tyres for the Big White Wombat, Oodnadatta, South Australia. About 15 kilometres north of Oodnadatta is a well signposted turnoff which points you to Dalhousie Springs via Todmorgan, Mt Sarah and Hamilton Stations. These are all massive cattle properties.

I drove the 170 kilometres to Dalhousie Springs. This is possibly one of the worst sections of track in Australia. The corrugations were horrendous. There were lots of rocky creek beds and twists and turns on the track, so driving fast to try and beat the corrugations was often too risky. More often than not, I was restricted to driving at a pace which shook the wombat to bits.

I crossed into the Witjira National Park. I have been finding that a lot of the National Parks now have great entrance signs. Witjira was no exception.

10 Southern entrance to Witjira National Park, in the Descriptive sign, Oodnadatta track, 15 kilometres far north of South Australia. north of Oodnadatta, South Australia. Dalhousie Springs is the official starting point of ‘The French Line’, crossing the Simpson Desert from west to east. Anyone travelling east from Dalhousie Springs is required to have a ‘Desert Parks Pass’ – issued by National Parks – South Australia, and vehicles are required to have a 3 metre fluorescent ‘sand flag’ mounted to them.

I stayed for a couple of days and enjoyed the relaxing, warm (38 degrees C), waters of the Corellas ‘dozing’ in branches above the warm waters of Dalhousie spring. Springs, Witjira National Park, South Australia. Late in the afternoon, a flock of Corellas (Cacatua sanguinea) perched in tree branches hanging over the warm waters appeared to fall asleep and spent the afternoon ‘dozing’.

I had to step over a colourful array of abandoned pool toys and floating devices, left at the steps to the main spring at Dalhousie, for all to use at their leisure.

11 Enjoying the spa-like waters of Dalhousie Springs, Witjira National Park, South Australia. It was nearing the end of the Simpson Desert ‘crossing season’ and I was hearing horror stories about how bad the track was. I decided to head north instead. Parts of the track from Dalhousie Springs to Mt. Dare were also very corrugated and rough. About halfway between these two places, the BWW spotlight mountings shook to bits and the fibreglass UHF radio aerial mounted to the bull-bar, snapped in half. I stopped and looked around for something with which I could ‘splint’ the aerial back into position. I searched an area adjacent to the track and A bone used to splint a broken UHF radio aerial, Witjira National found an old bone which might do the job. I Park, far north of South Australia. wasn’t sure if it was a dingo or kangaroo bone. I just hope it wasn’t human. It was light but strong. I used silver duct tape to splint it to the UHF aerial.

After a short stop at Mt Dare. (still within the Witjira National Park) I drove on towards Finke and the . The track crossed into the Northern Territory and headed north west. This was a recently graded wide track and I was able to get up some speed. I slowed down at a road sign informing me that the ‘Lambert Centre of Australia’, was about 15 km down a side track. This was a twisting, sandy, very corrugated, heavily used track, but the area was quite wooded.

12 The Royal Geographical Society – Lambert – Centre of Australia Monument, Northern Territory. It was late in the afternoon and I decided to stop for the night and camp at the geographical centre of Australia. There was no-one else around. The Lambert Centre of Australia is named in honour of Dr. Bruce Phillip Lambert O.B.E. 1912 – 1992, who, according to the bronze plaque attached to the monument, “…made a significant contribution to world cartography…” Apparently, the point is calculated from 24,500 points on Australia’s coastline at the high water mark.

Although it was very peaceful and quiet at the centre, I did spot a pair of Rainbow Bee-eaters (Merops ornatus) flitting around the trees near the centre monument.

At the centre point there is a flagpole modelled on the one atop the Federal Parliament House in Canberra. What also amazed me was the amount of ‘crap’ that people want to attach to our ‘monuments’. All sorts of rubbish was attached to the chain link fence around the flagpole. There were gloves, a DVD, kids toys, thongs, shoes, plastic bottles, aluminium cans, stickers, paper notes, lanyards, and lots of locks. Just bizarre.

Here is a short video showing the Lambert – Geographical Centre of Australia:

A Rainbow Bee-eater at the Lambert geographic centre of 13 Australia, in the Northern Territory Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park. (Ayres Rock & The Olgas)

I eventually made my way to the Yulara Resort caravan park and secured a small unpowered site for $42/night (ouch!) There is no camping allowed in the surrounding area outside the caravan park or in the National Park. The area is highly controlled due to the large number of tourists passing through.

Everyone grabs a couple of shots of ‘the Rock’. The best shots are usually composed at sunrise and sunset, but they have actually got large ‘Sunset Bus Parking’ and ‘Sunset Car Parking’ areas because of the huge numbers of people wanting to take shots at this time. I wanted to avoid all of this and decided to take my shots earlier in the afternoon, even thought I knew the light would not be at it’s best.

14 Uluru – Ayers Rock, central Australia, Northern Territory

I drove around to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) which can be seen from Uluru. Although the scenery was special, it was quite hot so I did not walk around a lot. Hundreds of hire vehicles and buses were on the roads. I expected this would be the case but I found that I just wanted to get away from it all. bigwhitewombat.com

15 Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), central Australia, Northern Territory.

I moved on towards Watarrka National Park (Kings Canyon), stopping overnight in a 24 hour campground on the Lasseter Highway. I had an interesting night sharing some char grilled meats and pickled chilli cabbage with three Korean fruit-pickers on their way back to Brisbane. Although communication was a problem, they were very nice and left me with a couple of packets of ramen noodles.

16 Entrance to the Watarrka National Park - Kings Canyon, Northern Territory, Australia. Watarrka National Park (Kings Canyon)

Beautiful scenes are everywhere in Kings Canyon, Northern Territory, Australia. bigwhitewombat.com 17 An early morning walk around the rim of Kings canyon takes about 3 hours. It is a very special place and the scenery is breathtaking. If the temperature is forecast for 36 degrees C. or above, the authorities close the rim walk at 9.00 a.m. Fortunately, I started at 6.30 a.m. when it was still cool, so did not have a problem.

By the time I got back to the car-park – it was full, mainly with hire vehicles, tour vehicles and tour buses.

About halfway around the rim walk is a monument seat dedicated to Zoe Stephanie Woolmer, who tragically died in 2014, aged 24 years. She was performing a risky pose for a photo near the edge of part of the canyon. Then fell to her death. Very sad.

It seems to be a place that inspires risk taking behaviour. I spotted this girl from across the canyon

18 Risky behaviour at Kings Canyon, Watarrka National Park, Northern Territory, central Australia And she wasn’t the only one. This bloke wanted to lie right at the edge.

Close to the edge, Kings Canyon, Watarrka National Park, Northern Territory, Central Australia

You can’t blame the authorities. There are many appropriately placed signs telling people not to go within 2 metres of the edges of canyons. Some just choose to ignore.

It is a beautiful place and people want to see as much of it as they can.

19 More stunning scenery in Kings Canyon, Northern Territory, Australia. West MacDonnell National Park

I paid the $5.50 permit fee to the Northern Lands Council, for the privilege of driving on the shockingly corrugated Mereenie Loop Road, from Kings Canyon to Namatjira Drive, from which a stretch of gorges, creeks, chasms and gaps can be accessed.

I crossed paths with a wandering camel, several horses, cattle and a few donkeys.

bigwhitewombat.com 20 Wild horses on the Mereenie Loop Road, Northern Territory, central Australia. Wild donkeys on the Mereenie Loop Road, Northern Territory, central Australia.

My First overnight stop was at Ormiston Gorge. I stayed one night in the crowded little camping ground, but I really enjoyed the early morning ‘pound walk’, which took me around a loop through the stunningly beautiful bowl of ranges that feed water into the permanent water hole.

I had several swims in the hole. The water was quite cool and pleasant. The lack of recent rains and warm temperatures have led to a slight buildup of algae, but this caused no great problem.

21Ormiston Gorge waterhole, West MacDonnell Ranges, Northern Territory, central Australia. A range of local birdlife made itself known.

A Black Fronted Dotterel, Ormiston Gorge, Northern Crested ‘Spinifex’ pigeons, Ormiston Gorge, Northern Territory, central Australia. Territory, central Australia.

22 White plumed honeyeater, Ormiston Gorge, Northern Zebra Finch inspecting grass seed, Ormiston Gorge, Territory, central Australia. Northern Territory, central Australia. bigwhitewombat.com

There were a few dragonflies hanging around the waterholes, including this Common Bluetail (Ischnura heterosticta), taking a ride on a leaf.

I travelled east along Namatjira drive towards Alice Springs and stopped at an interesting ‘Ochre Pit’, along the way. I understand ochre is used in Aboriginal ceremonies for

Common Bluetail Dragonfly taking a ride on a leaf, Ormiston Gorge, Northern Territory, Australia

adornment, and was once highly sought after as a valued trading item. It has been scraped from these cliffs for countless years. However, signs state that it is now an offence ($5,000 fine) for people to touch or remove ochre from this area.

23 Ochre Pits, West MacDonnell Ranges, Northern Territory, Australia. I moved on to a wonderful campground at Ellery Creek – Big Hole. It was only $5.00 per night but had flushing toilets and you could swim at your leisure in the refreshing water hole. I stayed 2 nights. Here I am taking a dip in the waterhole, surrounded by spectacular scenery of the Gorge and the West MacDonnell ranges.

Before I left Ellery Creek, I completed the ‘Dolomite’ walking trail, looping around a small part of the ranges. There was some lovely early morning light bringing the spinfex (Triodia sp.) grasses to life.

I made my way to Alice Springs, where I picked up another tyre, and headed back to Adelaide via the Stuart Highway.

24 Morning light on the ‘spinifex’, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Western Taking a dip at Ellery Creek – Big Hole, West MacDonnell MacDonnell Ranges, Northern Territory, central Australia. Ranges, Northern Territory, central Australia. 25