We have decided to put the Eyre Peninsula on hold as the weather is getting quite cold so we headed north to Port Pirie and then Port Augusta for a few days in each. These ports are different to the little places we’d passed through before as they are important shipping ports with Pt. Pirie having a big lead and zinc smelter as well as grain shipping and Pt. Augusta at the head of the Spencer Gulf is also an important freight terminal.
We explored Pt. Pirie town where the railway ran down the middle of the main street until the 1970’s and visited some of the small towns in the surrounding area like Gladstone which has a large gaol which was used until the ‘70s and is open to the public to stay overnight in the cells – popular with car club groups etc.
We drove through the hills south east of Pt.Augusta in the Mt Remarkable area which is very popular for mountain biking and there are lots of trails around Melrose township. At their museum we learned about Goyder’s Line, a line which was defined in the 1860’s which designated areas suitable for farming and outside which it was said to be too arid and only suitable for grazing. It is still used as a pretty accurate guide today.
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| Warren Gorge |
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| This Yellow footed rock wallaby had never seen a Moke before at at Warren Gorge |
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| Kanyaka ruins - even big properties were abandoned. Kanyaka station was 360 sq. miles |
We moved on up to Quorn and had a great day on the back roads between there and Hawker visiting Warren Gorge which would be a wonderful quiet bush camp spot with plenty of birds and wildlife and we stopped at several lots of ruins which are typical of the mid north of South Australia which is dotted with the ruins of broken dreams. Little cottages and towns which did not survive the hard drought years and changes of fortune on the land can be seen along every road.
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