Orroroo - the town without fuel

Orroroo, the town without fuel, due to a leakage in the underground storage tanks. The nearest fuel available is at Peterborough, 36 km away. The pumps have now been taken away, and by the look of the run down garage new fuel tanks may never happen. People in Orroroo are not happy. 

Orroroo is a prosperous country town, and the main street boasts two hotels, three cafes, grocery store, pharmacy/ news agent, clothes shop, butchers shop, grocery store, PO, and numerous related farm shops.  Plus a camping ground. A bustling town, with lots of people about. 

The town also has beautiful houses, although the gardens are looking a little bedraggled due to the prolonged drought. 

There is an area school which caters for primary and secondary students. The oldest building, a one roomed classroom built in 1880, had one teacher for 150/180 students. From a teacher's point of view I cannot begin to think how hard that must have been. 

Another room was added in 1920. The original building is now the Community Library and the added on room is the administration offices. 

The Blacksmith's Charter, established in 1880, was a blacksmith, wheelwright, and agricultural machinery/manufacturing business. Now a Conference Centre and Restaurant. 

An abandoned building since 1971, but was once a successful butter factory that exported butter to the United Kingdom. 

A rusty old tractor plus a few other very old pieces of farm machinery. 

The camping ground is on the hill overlooking the golf course, picnic area and swimming pool. When we were here in 2020 the area was very green. Not so now. But there is hope that the drought has now finished, and it is possible to see a little bit of green on the hillside. 

Yesterday we went for a circular drive, partly on bitumen and partly on a dirt road.

The highlight was an old town called Pekina, with European settlement starting in 1846. As well as farming the township became a stopping point between Blinman and Burra. The main settlers were from Germany and Ireland, and the district was nicknamed 'Vatican Valley' due to its Roman Catholic heritage.

The Catholic Church in the photo above, has a hall and a statue of Mary which was part of the Rosary walk, I think. 

I think this house may have been the Presbytery, but not really sure. It was next to the church. 

The old store. 

The hotel! Still open too. 

There were a few other old buildings, still occupied, and an historic animal pound. 

The town, like so many other places, suffered with drought, rust and locusts, in the 1880s. Amazingly it never fell into complete ruin. The Irish and German settlers were a tough lot, I think. 

Another abandoned house 

Not all the seeds were blown away with the topsoil during the strong wind in May. The recent rain has germinated these seeds.

The large grain field, with damp soil.

A monument to remember Goyder, the surveyor who developed the Goyder line in 1865. His line, which ran through most of South Australia, delineated the difference between land that would receive enough rainfall to make farming viable and land that would be unviable due to persistent droughts. And he proved to be correct, even though people did not believe him at first. 

The Pekina Creek Reservoir was one of the earliest irrigation schemes in Australia. It was built about 1910 and irrigated farms around the area so they could grow lucerne. The lucerne was then used to feed cows on the dairy farms ( the connection with the butter factory in Orroroo). But as usual a prolonged drought meant the water level dropped considerably, and then a thunderstorm in 1947 filled the water with silt. In 1973 the reservoir was abandoned.. Now it is a very brown lake. 

Tomorrow we travel home. Piper will be happy, although perhaps not as she will be having a very big wash. Today she rolled in something nasty and now smells, even though I gave her a wash in our little bathroom.  She is currently lying on my bed and I can still smell the pervading perfume. 

And hopefully the number of dead kangaroos on the side of the road will ease, once we are away from the Flinders Ranges.  We did not count them between Copley and Orroroo but there must have been at least 100. There was one dead emu. Emus are faster then kangaroos and perhaps smarter. No dead goats although five goats decided to stop in the middle of the road. Luckily we stopped too. They only moved when I pressed the horn. 

It has been a lovely trip, and interesting too, so important to stop and investigate places instead of racing past. 

Out and about around Copley

We are still at the camping ground in Copley, rather then at our next destination, Orroroo. The very strong winds meant towing a caravan could be foolhardy.  So we spent a relaxed day here. 

Leigh Creek, once a bustling town, is now quiet, due to the end of coal mining in 2015. So most people have moved out, and businesses have gone too. Another lovely town finished, well for the time being anyway. The railway has also closed as it was linked to the transport of coal. 

There is a beautifully landscaped town centre, shown in the photo above and the one below. But no people walking around. And empty shops. 

There is a supermarket, a post office, a hotel and a closed laundromat.  

And amazingly a small cafe exists, called 'The Sassy Emu, tearoom and collectibles'. 

Plus a very good looking coffee machine.  Unfortunately it was closed on Monday so I had to take photos through the windows. 

There is a brand new medical centre which services a very large area. Walter went there to get his arm bandaged.. One of the side panels fell down as we were putting up the back bed and scraped the skin off his arm. Ouch. He was the only patient. Plus they gave him spare dressings. Great service.

But back to our travels around Copley. We travelled up the road a bit to the next settlement called Lindhurst, which was also on the Great Northern Railway line. Not much there now, a few houses, a closed road house, a hotel and a caravan park. 

Plus a few areas of interest.

The Ochre cliffs were quite spectacular as they ranged in colours from red, yellow and white and everything in between.

Aboriginal people mined here as they crushed the rocks to make dyes and paints. 

It is a site of significant Aboriginal  Heritage and people must stay in the carpark. 

We drove out onto a narrow road, passed a run down shack with an enormous number of wrecked vehicles around it, and eventually found Talc Alf's studio. 

Talc Alf is a Dutch born self taught talc sculpture.

He carves from talc from the Mount Fitton talc mines. Many of his creations reflect aspects of local history. 

A line up of his creations. 

He made a carving of a local hero, Murtee Johhny, who was the last surviving member of the local indigenous people. 

The sign below is all that is left of the Lyndhurst railway station. 

Later in the day we drove a few km from Leigh Creek to the 43 sq km Aroona Sanctuary.which surrounds the Aroona Dam, built in the 1950s.  

The water was initially used for coal mining, as well as for the local towns. 

A beautiful spot. People are allowed to use canoes on the dam, as well as swim in it. Great way to cool down during the extreme heat in the summer time. 

When we came back onto the main road, we stopped to get a photograph of the railway bridge nestled among the gum trees. 

The local garage made good use of old tyres. There were lots of painted tyres there but I liked this arrangement the best. 

As we had an extra day to fill in we thought we would go for a little drive towards Arkaroola, which is the most eastern tip of the Flinders Ranges. 

It is 130 km to Arkaroola village, too far for Piper to have to stay in the car the whole time (it is a reserve). Plus the gravel road, with corrugations, would destroy our caravan if we decided to take it and stay a few nights  

Mostly the terrain was dry, and bare, and with patches of trees by the creek beds. 

A reasonable gravel road, but of course the corrugations go with it . This is the first time we have used our car on this type of road and we were impressed with the way it handled the bone shaking corrugations.  

A dry creek bed. There were many of them, snaking down from the ranges onto the flat land. 

And before I finish I must mention the Admyamathanha People, who were the original people who lived in the Flinders Ranges area. They are made up of various family groups but come together under one name. Although they were displaced during European settlement, and many died as a result of illnesses brought in with settlers, they contined to be a united group. Consequently they have retained much of their culture and language. 

Copley - a friendly town

My laptop has died! I knew it was getting old but did not expect that suddenly it was no more. And not at a good time. But then it never is! And now I am trying to use my telephone, which is amazing when it comes to most things. But blog writing? We will see! I will have to keep the words down, no touch typing. 

Tomorrow we leave Copley. We are reluctant to go. The weather is warm and sunny, the camping ground is relaxed and open, the people are friendly, and Copley itself has heaps of character. The photos above were taken in the camping ground. 

Mind you the facilities are not wonderful. A small ablutions block with cracks in the wall but the owners keep them painted. The units are very good compared to many out this way. 

And there is dust everywhere! 

Next door there is a newly developed Botanic garden.

We were most impressed with the range of native plants. 

We have many visitors, namely local horses, kangaroos and emus. All the taps have to be covered due to the horses being able to turn them on! 

Amazing sunsets too. 

Copley is a few km from Leigh Creek, which was a coal mining town. More about that later. 

In fact Copely was named Leigh's Creek initially, after Harry Leigh, who was employed on a nearby Pastoral Run. 

When the railway came through in 1881, the station was built just south of where the line crossed the creek. Coal was discovered here in 1888. 

When the town was surveyed the name was changed to Copley, after the Commissioner of Crown Lands. 

The old railway station. 

 Where is the train! The lines are still here due to the coal mine having only recently closed in 2015. 

The Copley hotel, a very popular place judging by the number of cars parked outside. 

The Quandong Cafe/bakery which also houses the office for the camping ground. Another very popular place, and caters for passing travellers, people in the camping ground as well as local people. Excellent coffee, pies and cakes. Quandong fruits are small red berries, and have a tarty sweet flavour. 

And the rest of the town? There are a number of houses on the other side of the railway line. The 'main street' on one side, has the cafe, camping ground, an old roadhouse (closed), hotel, garage, and a hall with a basketball court. No footpath of course. All very rough. But friendly.