Broken Hill - Hay - and Griffith, and Home 25th - 31st August 2011

Thank you for sharing our beautiful holiday trip with us.  We had quite a few days in Broken Hill.  I could remember the street names, but not much of the town at first, but it does not take long to remember where everything is.   The “Line of lode”  still runs through the city and  it is 38 years since we were  there and nothing  much had changed except Woolworths had built a small shopping complex .  

Broken Hill Entertainment Centre

BH Gallery

Broken Hill

View of Broken Hill from the Cafe

Cafe on Line of Lode, BH

In Broken Hill we were happy to see very many old friends and the love they shared with us was very evident.  Some of the youth, who were our special project (we were about 24 when we arrived there) are now grand-parents.   They were all very hospitable and it was great to see them.  We went to some lovely galleries and looked over some venues which were special to us, like the University where Graeme used to teach, our two homes, one rented and one purchased and where Darlene was born.  We tripped out to the dam and to Menindee Lakes, which recently had 30 feet of flood waters in the river and the lakes.   

Dry Creek Bed

Emus on the road

BH Hospital Chapel

Menindee Lakes

An old BH mine

Pro Hart's Gallery Organ

Silverton

Twisty Road to Menindee

We moved on to Hay where we caught up with long time friends David and Betty Andrew whom we knew at Griffith.   They took us out for a day and showed us all around Hay.  Italian, German and European Jews were kept out there in camps during the 2^nd World War and the town still remembers by switching on the “search lights” every single night. Betty plays the beautiful pipe organ at the old church, maybe it was the Cathedral, but the church building is getting very old and some of the worshippers keep a wary eye out to make sure it does not fall down on them. Graeme had a little play on the organ. 

When we left Broken Hill our warm weather ran out, and Griffith was 1 degree, but ended up with plenty of sunshine, but not too much warmth.  The Murrumbidgee River  has been in full flood since the rains and it is quite pretty .   The farms were looking brilliant with beautiful crops of wheat and Canola.  The place truly shines like a beautiful jewel .   We visited  friends, Yvonne and Wayne  who are trying to get their Seed Crushing Plant up and running .  It was a huge investment made before the drought arrived 12 years ago, but it stayed unused all through the drought . We also visited the large new church .  

Griffith is full of multi million dollar wineries these days.  We called by to see lots of friends all over the place and were given a warm and loving welcome from many friends from the past.   We took a nostalgic look over CSIRO and we had a great tour of the place.     The lovely home we built 35 years ago,  still looks brand new and beautiful and is on the market again.  The town has doubled in size, as far as the business premises go.   I don’t know of any other town that could do that during a 12 year drought!  

Our Yenda (Griffith) home

CSIRO and Murrumbidgee Irrigation

Griffith Citrus Orchard

Pt Pirie to Broken Hill 21st-23rd August 2011

We took the van to Pt Pirie to have it serviced.  While we were there we took a picnic lunch to Pt Broughton, a little down the Spencer Gulf.   The area was deep green – wall to wall wheat at its best.  From the Mountains to the sea, quite a beautiful sight.  We loved it after the dry land we had been on for quite a while.  Pt Broughton was a quiet, seaside place with lots of children and it was full of history, dating from the mid 1800s.  There were lots of ancient buildings and many of the farmers who tried their fortune at farming in the area, left with their fingers burnt  – especially those who went to the more arid regions.  Nobody counted on years of drought and so little water. The railways were all so important then and often ran down the middle of the main street.  Just imagine all the towns-folk stopping what they were doing to watch the monstrous steam train roll in to town. No cars on the road in those days.

Pt Broughton

Wandearah East Uniting Church

Wandearah East Uniting Church

Wheat farming

Wind farm and wheat farming

We enjoyed the visit to the old railway station at Pt Pirie – it was fantastically well done out as a museum – but dusty.  It is near the waterfront.  There were several changes in the gauges of the railway lines over the years and one of the major platforms left over, has recently been turned into the local library and tourist information office.  It is all built on the railway platform, but you would never know it when you are inside - it is fantastic and is gently curving around a bend.  A beautiful affair all in all.   We saw a 5 m shark which was found right at Port Pirie where the children swim.  He was stuffed, but such a size.

Port Pirie Library from the converted railway station

Pt Pirie railway station

Driving from Peterborough to Broken Hill today we spotted about 34 emus all near the road, though they don’t make terrific subjects for photos because we are driving along at a rate of knots as we take their picture.  Graeme and I were both surprised that neither of us could identify much with Broken Hill as we have not been here for about 38 years.  Graeme lectured at the new University in Physics here and was able to find his old office.  Much of the building is currently “mothballed”.  I ran my own business college here and worked with the TAFE College. Darlene was born here and we left when she was four years old.   We checked over what used to be the Uni and now it has multi educational uses.  Our old home we bought – walk in walk out – complete with food and linen in the cupboards, was hard to recognize.  We paid $4,500 for the house and we had to pay an extra thousand dollars to make the land Freehold.  Graeme says his salary at the Uni was $5,000 p.a.  I remember my weekly shopping cost $5.00.   

Our old house for $4,500



All my beautiful Sturt Desert Peas had gone from my garden and all the Fairy Stattice which is every florist’s favourite – a beautiful feathery mauve flower - was gone.  Oh!  My poor garden.  The Almond trees were also gone and instead there were huge trees of different kinds – most inappropriate for the site.  The one redeeming feature was that the house we first lived in - and had been the bank in Silverton before the “line of load” had been discovered in Broken Hill – was in prime form.   It had been brought into B Hill and rebuilt, still looked very wonderful, in its maturity.  An historic piece altogether.   It has been so very well kept and is a land mark.  The owner was also the owner of the Pizza Hut in B. Hill and was very kind to us.     When we lived there, the camels used to come up on the front verandah in the middle of the night and have a meeting there.   I think they remembered the place when it was the bank in Silverton. It is the lovely two storey home in the photos.

Our old rented house

Graeme got a series of night shots around Pt Pirie of the smelter, which has been operating since the 1880’s and also of the wheat silos.   That area is one huge wheat provider for the world. There is a chap at Pt Pirie who swims up the gulf every morning and back singing at the top of his lungs.  Quite a sight – forget the freezing temperature, he’s happy.  Hope you are all happy as well.  Its mighty cold here, but the days are sunny and similar temperatures to home.

Night reflections

Night reflections

Sunrise reflections

Alice Springs to Pt Augusta SA 14-18th August 2011

We headed south to Uluru, which is 500 km return off the Stuart Highway.  We arrived in time to photograph Ayres Rock and a quick photo of The Olgas.  You are limited in where you are allowed to go.  Dozens of other snap-happy photographers from every corner of the globe were there to take photos of these two icons.  There is a 45 minute drive from Ayres Rock to The Olgas.  I climbed the rocks when I was 16, but today they request people not to climb it because so many have died attempting to do so.  It was good to see the new town that has sprung up about 20 km from the Rock.  Everything was World Class and very clean and upmarket.  We also joined the mob to do the sunrise photography.  

Ayres Rock at Sunset

Olgas near sunset

Olgas in the morning

We were glad to be on the road the following day and noticed that the unfenced cattle found their shade in a strange and unexpected place.   Beside the road there is sometimes a bit of a red sandy cutting, which may be about ¾ of a metre high.  The cattle would lie in the shady space that was afforded by the sand in the cutting.  This was the only shade available for them.   Needless to say, quite a few of the cattle are run over when they seek shade so near the roads.  The properties in the outback are so vast that they are not fenced, so the cattle can wander where they like.  You have to keep an eye out for them all the time.

We made our way down the centre to Coober Pedy, on the highway.  One sight of that place of piles of coloured sand has to be checked out.  So we stayed the night and went into an old underground mine and an underground house and church.  The town has to be seen to be believed. The opal lies between 20 and 30 feet depth, but some is much deeper and the beautiful stones are caused by being in the ground for a very long period.  Even seashells can turn into opal.   Must have been a very tough life in the early days – gouging with a pick, but today much of it is mechanized. An almighty wind storm with rain struck SA including Coober Pedy and driving in that wind was hard work.  The huge black storms were raging around us, but we were directed to places between the fronts, so that was a great blessing, as we followed the road.    We spent about 3 or more days out there.  Flowering shrubs were in many places and the territory was often quite pretty.  

What is this?

The opals are found in land that looks flat and almost lifeless.  You could never dream what was buried under the earth.

Coober Pedy

Graeme in opal mine

Opal overburden

Opals

Underground bedroom

Underground church

I’d been wanting to see a few more emus and we had 18 of them right where we were, close to Womera.  We had a quick look around there and found more emus.  

Emus at Woomera

Rocket launcher at Woomera

We had been out of fresh food since handing in our fresh food at the SA border, so we were delighted to find everything we needed at Pt Augusta.  It has turned really cold since the windy and wet front came in 2 days ago, so we are back in to winter woollies again and expect to stay in them from now on. 

Port Augusta Sand Cliffs at Flinders Lookout

The highlight for me at Pt Augusta was the WADLATA Outback Centre.  We took about 3 hours to take a fairly quick look at it.  It is also the Visitor’s Information Centre as far as I know.   Seeing it on the way to the desert lands would be one thing, but to see it after having done all the hard yards, it was just fantastic, World Class and I talked with the Artistic Director who has been there for 20 years and has won all the awards except the National Award – and is deserving of that one as well.  So remember that one. I felt it was something akin to Expo for those of you who went there when it was on in Brisbane – a smaller scale of course.

Wadlata Outback Centre Port Augusta

Gorgeous Gorges - West MacDonnell National Park - 11th August 2011

We had a wonderful day on Thursday exploring the gorges and chasms from Alice Springs on just two roads.  Larapinta Drive in Alice Springs and Namatjira Drive.  An early morning start found us in the freshness of dawn at Simpsons Gap, which is scarcely out of Alice Springs.  It was absolutely beautiful in the early morning light, but a bit early for great photographs, so we called back in the afternoon for some more shots.  A great start to the day. 

Simpsons Gap in the late afternoon

We drove a short distance then to Stanley Chasm where we had to pay the Aboriginal custodians a small entry fee.  It was a great hike up the river bed to the chasm.  The walls are so high and the gap so narrow that it was, once again, difficult to get great photos of it, but Graeme got some good shots. 

Stanley Chasm

Ellery Creek Bighole was next.  We had no idea what to expect.   A beautiful chasm with high red walls and a huge lake of water that is very deep. It is surrounded on two sides by white sandy beaches and a great spot for a swim without the fear of crocodiles this far south - breathtaking.  We had lunch there in the delightfully maintained amenities.

Ellery Creek Bighole

Following lunch we found ourselves at the Ocre Pits.  This was the biggest surprise.   The beautiful cliffs are made up of a chalky substance from which the Aboriginees take their colours used for body painting.  The colours were like streams of rainbows.  We got some great shots of this expansive and astonishing place.  We walked down the wide, dry river bed to see the coloured cliffs. 

Ormiston Gorge was the next site to visit.  I was there (and most of the other places) last when I was 16.  They were the good old days, no tarred roads, no amenities.  Ormiston Gorge was such a beautiful place with so much to photograph that we just stayed for hours and couldn’t leave.  I took 700 photos today and only one or two were duds, the rest are wonderful photos.  I took a lot of them at Ormiston Gorge.  It did not matter which way you looked or walked, there were photos begging to be taken. 

Ormiston Gorge Reflections by Pam

Finally we made it to Glen Helen Gorge and there was a resort there - another beautiful spot with a lot of water and fantastic cliffs. 

Glen Helen Gorge

We had just about run out of tarred road by this, and got our final shots of the Finke River and it had plenty of water in it and it was surrounded by mountains, rocks, rills, varying colours, a huge expansive valley that no camera could ever take it all in at once.    It was a great ending to a perfect day.   Final tally for the day was 1000 photos taken - all of them beautiful.    I plan to include one which is simply a reflection in water, so hope you enjoy that one, as much as we did, taking it. 

Today I wished you were all here with us to see so much beauty.  Following an unusually high rainfall, the mountains and valleys are covered with grasses and flowering plants.     

Grevillea

What's Up Doc? - Ormiston Gorge in the afternoon

We also came across a herd of about 20 horses with a foal in tow – right on the road.  They seemed to be fairly tame, and since we know most people like horses, we are including one of those shots as well.

On Friday we went east to Trephina Gorge.

Trephine Gorge - hard to get