Day 208 - Port Pirie to Minlaton

Today we travelled 230km through wheat and barley farms. The crops grow right down to the sea in places.  We were on the western side of the Yorke Peninsula and passed through several towns with beach frontages.  Included were Port Broughton, Wallaroo, Port Hughes and Port Victoria,  The towns weren't large, except for Walleroo which, at a guess, would be bigger than Port Pirie.  Needless to say the towns revolve around grain and the silos, particularly in Wallarooo, were very large.  Guess there might be a bit of fishing going on too. There was a fair bit of housing development too, very much like in WA.  Its really not that far from Adelaide so it might be the upwardly mobile young people building a second house at the beach.

311014 Port Broughton 56km from Port Pirie

311014 The harbour at Port Broughton

311014 TV reception is poor on the Yorke Peninsula

311014 The silos are big at Wallaroo

311014 Jetty at Moonta Bay

311014 Moonta Bay

311014 Moonta Bay on the other side of the jetty

311014 Town Hall at Moonta

311014 Port Hughes

311014 Point Victoria

311014 Wheat and/or barley as far as the eye can see - all day

We were surprised, when we stopped for lunch at Wallaroo, that the end of the Anderson Plug, which connects the battery systems of the car and the van together, was nowhere to be seen.  It beggars the operation of the refrigerator from the battery.  Seems there was small gravel from our recent adventures on dirt roads in the the plug. As a result the other end did not seat properly.  Probably lost it a few km out of Port Pirie.  The auto electrician at Wallaroo saved the day and for a small cost we were repaired.

Wallaroo is the western terminal for the ferry which goes across to Eyre Peninsula to a spot we visited while there, namely Lucky Bay.  The ferry is not working due to lack of demand.

We have heard of a bushfire making a nuisance of itself near Port Wakefield which is at the top of the Gulf of St Vincent.  It is a couple of hundred kms from us, so worry not. It started in stubble and with the temperature in the mid thirties, a wind change due and low humidity, it is apparently scooting along and creating some concern.

Minlaton is in the middle of the bottom half of Yorke Peninsula so we will stay here for a day or so and use it as a base for visiting southern coastal points of interest.

Day 207 - Around Port Pirie

It was a beautiful day again today, perfect for soaking up some of the history of Port Pirie. It commenced life in 1848 but was resurveyed in 1871 to provide the city's current site on the Port Pirie River.  The town benefited initially by the presence of Italian fishermen and their families.  While it does have a fishing history, it now relies on exporting grain, lead and zinc ore and concentrates and smelting.

Its port played a significant role in its history and it has the distinction of having loaded more wheat ships than Port Adelaide. This is not surprising given the extent of grain farming to its east. Today Port Pirie's grain silos have a capacity of 158,000 tonnes.   

301014 The grain silos in Port Pirie with the wharves at their front
and the "bridge to nowhere" in the foreground

Port Pirie was also a major link in the rail line to Broken Hill and the sea link for the mines at Broken Hill and Silverton.

The smelter commenced operations in 1889.  The original BHP precursor companies were instrumental in the development of a smelter at Port Pirie.  On 2 June 1915 a new company, Broken Hills Associated Smelters Co Ltd, set about protecting Australia's lead-zinc-silver interests, in the face of German worldwide dominance of the smelting industry, spurred on by political tensions in Europe.  The smelter was a primary lead smelter, with flexibility to treat a small range of other metal bearing feed material.  There have been several changes of ownership by major Australian mining companies until, in 2002, Zinifex became the owner.  Zinifex merged with Umicore from Belgium, to form its current ownership under the name of Nystar.  It has ceased operations at the moment following an announcement in May 2014 that Nystar would redevelop the site, at a cost in excess of $500million, into an advanced poly-metallic processing and recovery facility.  Environmental considerations influenced this decision in part, but the original facilities, around 60 years old, had exceeded their economic life. The new plant will incorporate a state of the art oxygen enriched enclosed bath smelting furnace and include a new sulphuric acid plant.  Here endeth the lesson.

301014 The Nystar Smelter in Port Pirie.  This gravel area
is "nowhere", refer below

Port Pirie is full of buildings demonstrating its history and they have been preserved very well.  We visited the National Trust Museum housed in the old Port Pirie Ellen Street Railway Station.

301014 Port Pirie Railway Station and Post Office

301014 Ellen Street Railway Station, home of The National Trust Museum

301014 Not quite gargoyles but reminiscent of such. Pig, cow and sheep heads.
Not surprising it was a family butcher shop way back when.

The township is on the Port Pirie River and they have built a city beach at nearby Solomantown, not far from the Caravan Park.  All in all it is not a spectacular town but it is well presented and the locals are proud of it.  They are also proud of their "Bridge to Nowhere".  It crosses the river from the city to an undeveloped area directly opposite the smelter.

301014 Solomantown Beach in Port Pirie

301014 Coming back from 'nowhere" over the "bridge to nowhere"

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Day 206 - Back into the southern Flinders Ranges from Port Pirie

A beautiful day today which maxed out at 29 degrees up in the mountains.  

Our first task was to visit the tourist information centre to see what was going on in the area. In the centre was a display of local handiwork and paintings.  The embroidery was something to see, as the pictures will confirm. 

291014 Bouquet - a cross stitched  embroidery - took 5 years to do

291014 Another embroided picture - this took 6 months to do

Not wishing to miss a chance to see the local gorges, we headed off to Telowie Gorge, only to find that it was closed as a result of bush fires and floods earlier this year.  Undaunted, we headed for Bangor Gorge, through which you have to pass to get to the tableland in the ranges.  It too had been ravaged by the same bush fires and floods.  The road along the bottom of the gorge was badly damaged by the flood and has only recently been repaired and reopened. It was a twisty, turny drive for about 15km but eventually we emerged at Murray Town.

291014 Bangor Gorge - bushfire and flood ravaged summer 2014

By now we were in the grain fields with barley and wheat crops everywhere, with an occasional patch of black, where faba beans had been sprayed in preparation for harvesting. 

291014 Faba bean crop after spraying and ready for harvesting

We passed through these as we headed for Melrose, a lovely town at the base of Mount Remarkable.  Melrose has an ANZAC memorial on the slopes of Mount Remarkable, and the view of the fields of gold from this site was magnificent.  The amount of land devoted to cereal crops is quite astonishing.

291014 Mount Remarkable - southern Flinders Ranges

291014 Coming in to Melrose.  Note the roses

291014 ANZAC memorial in Melrose

291014 Melrose from the ANZAC Memorial site on the lower
slopes of Mount Remarkable

291014 View from the ANZAC Memorial site on the lower
slopes of Mount Remarkable

291014 The old suspension bridge at Melrose

We came face to face with a farmer whose son was harvesting wheat near to where we had stopped, not far from Pekina.  He was a wealth of knowledge about cereal crop farming and explained what was happening with the machinery.  We barely got away from him when another farmer pulled up alongside and was on for a chat too.

291014 Harvesting wheat near Pekina

291014 Emptying the "box" of grain on the combine harvester

From Pekina we drove by many, many more farms down through Tarcowie to Jamestown and then turned west and headed back to Port Pirie via Caltowie, and Gladstone.  

Today we covered 264km.  Each day we find and enjoy something new which adds to our learning experience.  Today was no exception and we even saw some colour other than gold.

291014 Briar type rose on the roadside near Melrose

291014 Don't think they are weeds.  They were in well defined fields

Day 205 - Woomera to Port Pirie

At last we had stable weather today for our 273km run from Woomera to Port Pirie.  Driving was pleasant with the sun behind us, the temperature hovering in the 18-20 degrees range and little wind.

There was not a lot new to us as we retraced our steps back to Port Augusta.  Thereafter we were in new territory.  The Southern Flinders Ranges were on our LHS as we drove through the slender coastal strip between the ranges and Spencer Gulf.  Wheat fields appeared in the coastal strip, with evidence of the harvest having been completed in some places. 

There were precious few places to visit south of Port Augusta but we stopped at Port Germein, an historically important wheat town.  The town claims its jetty to be the longest wooden jetty in Australia, at 1676 metres long.  

There was not a lot happening in Port Germein but from the end of the jetty, we could see Port Pirie, 25km away across the water and Point Lowly and Port Bonython on the other side of Spencer Gulf, which we visited several days ago.  Much to our surprise we saw two horses being given a workout on the sand flats at low tide.  Much to our surprise too, we made it back from the end of jetty after our 3.3km walk.

281014 The lighthouse at the end of the jetty at Port Germein

281014 Two different sorts of horsepower on the beach at Port Germein

281014 Training two trotters at Port Germein

281014 The jetty at Port Germein looking out into Spencer Gulf

281014 40m of the longest timber jetty in Australia lost to the elements but not the birds

281014 Port Pirie smelter, 25km away from the end of the Port Germein jetty

281014 Looking back to Port Germein with the Flinders Ranges in the background

We are just over 200km from Adelaide so, not surprisingly, we noticed an increase in traffic density and in population density too.  

Tomorrow we will get to know Port Pirie a little better.

Day 204 - Woomera, Roxby Downs, Olympic Dam and Andamooka

We have had a very interesting 24 hours.  After a very hot day yesterday we were surprised, at about 10pm to hear some rumbling.  It was thunder emanating from lightning which heralded the arrival of a desert storm.  The lightning flashed and the wind blew, shaking the van and making it creak - like all good noises in the night.  It then rained, large spots with the wind blowing them headlong into the van.  In about thirty minutes the storm passed over but we continued to hear it as it moved away to the north east.

Eventually we went to sleep but the wind continued through the night.  We awoke this morning with a howling south westerly at our door and a temperature of 15 degrees.  Sadly there was no moisture on the ground when we stepped out. Today the wind has continued unabated and the temperature reached 25 degrees.  That in itself has been a welcome change.  

What a change and what an opportunity to continue our foray into the outback.  Firstly we toured Woomera.  Woomera was initially conceived in 1947 and was a joint operation between the British and the Australian Governments.  It was the site for launching British experimental rockets between 1964 and 1970 and later, satellites.  In 1960-1972 NASA operated a deep space tracking station at the (relatively) nearby Island Lagoon.  The testing range covers an area of 270,00 square km which includes the Great Victorian Desert and extends into WA.

271014 Housing at Woomera

There are rockets aplenty to see in Woomera and photographs of some follow.

271014 Black Arrow - British rocket for launching 
satellites up to 560km high

271014 Seaslug - surface to air missile

271014 Skylark - high altitude research rocket

271014 Jindivik - target aircraft

271014  Petrel - supersonic target rocket

271014 Blue Steel - air to ground missile

271014 Recovered material from a Blue Streak firing

271014 HAD rocket- high altititude density research

271014 Black Knight designed for high speed re-entry data

After Woomera we headed off to Roxby Downs, which is the main residential site for workers at BHP Billiton's Olympic Mine, about 10km away.  

271014 Power delivery to Roxby Downs and Olympic Dam Mine

The mine is a major oxide, copper, gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. The site hosts an underground mine and an integrated metallurgical processing plant.  Its capacity is 200,000tpa of copper and 4,300tpa of uranium, plus gold and silver. We could not access the mine.

271014 Entry gate at Olympic Dam Mine

271014 A distant shot of BHPB's Olympic Dam Mine's surface facilities

271014 Another distant shot of BHPB's Olympic Dam Mine's surface facilities

Roxby Downs is a modern mining town but we did notice one outstanding thing, most of the people, kids and women included, are a trifle on the fat side.

271014 Main street of Roxby Downs

Next we went to Andamooka about 30km from Roxby Downs.  This is another significant opal producer.  Some say its opals are better than Coober Pedy's.  There did not seem to be as many homes built underground, but the mullock mounds were just as impressive. It is heating up now so mining activity is minimal. They have kept a few old miner's cottages to demonstrate how the original miners lived. 

271014 Andamooka

271014 Old miners' cottages at Andamooka

271014 Another view of Andamooka

This was another interesting and informative day.  The wind is still blowing like you would not believe but the temperature has stayed down.  Yippee!