SOUTH AUSTRALIAN TRIP 2005
Monday 31 October to Monday 7 November
Blog 1
We left Sydney on Wednesday 26 October and after spending time in Melbourne catching up with both sides of the family we started on our new adventure on Monday 31 October. The Western Highway took us to our first stop, Ararat.
We had a fantastic day in Ararat. We walked through the beautiful Alexandra Gardens including a beautiful orchid glass house. Ararat is in fact the orchid city. We took a tour of J ward, which was the gaol for the criminally insane. A blue stone gaol building with some dreadful stories which are very recent. The gaol was closed in 1991 and held the insane prisoners since 1930’s. It included the introduction of Lithium drugs in the 1960’s. The conditions were terrible and the stories even more terrible.
The Gum San Chinese Heritage Centre records the events of the founding of Ararat which involved the march of 700 Chinese from Robe in South Australia to Ararat to avoid a tax imposed by the Victorian Government of the day. The Chinese had stopped to rest and discovered a huge vein of gold and this started a gold rush in the area and established the town.
One Tree Hill Lookout in Ararat provided a view of the whole area and finally we took a tour of Seppelts Vineyard and the underground tunnels called drives which hold the wines for maturity. A plaque which commemorates the founder of AFL (Australian Football League – Aussie Rules), Thomas Wills, is Moysten’s claim to fame.
We made Halls Gap in the Grampians our home base for the next few days. The weather was beautiful which was an added bonus to the beautiful scenery. We started with the Boroka Lookout where there was a magnificent view of the valley and the mountains and then proceeded to the Reed lookout with a rock formation that was called the “Balconies”. The views were spectacular. Our third stop for the morning was the Mackenzie Falls and Broken Falls. It was a bit of a walk but the falls were very beautiful and definitely worth the effort. A 4WD track provided the most spectacular view over looking the valley between the Wonderland Range and the Mount William Range. The last waterfall was the Silverband Waterfall which was spectacular because the waterfall didn’t end in a lake but rather the whole volume of the water went underground. A most amazing sight.
The weather had changed and it was raining and windy so we decided to head to Mildura via Horsham and Ouyen.
The weather was beautiful again and the Murray River was fantastic even with the mosquitoes. Mildura has a lovely feel to it. It has wide streets, friendly people, fantastic fruit orchards and vineyards everywhere.
The sky was blue and the air was cool and it was a perfect day for a river cruise on the Rothbury Paddle Steamer down the Murray. We passed through the No. 11 loch and the captain gave us some of the history of the paddle steamers and the early settlers. The pace of the paddle steamer was slow, the weather was sunny, the birds were flying around and we had a great 2 hours.
We stopped to look at the Old Homestead of the Chaffey Bros who founded Mildura. Canadian brothers who started to irrigate the area.
The next must see spot was Wentworth, a small town just over the Murray in NSW where the mighty Darling River joins the mighty Murray River. Just out of Wentworth are the Perry Sand Hills which are fine red sand dunes. We climbed the sand dunes to see beautiful Red River Gums, some up to 1000 years old, with most of their massive trunks covered with the beautiful fine red sands. A terrifying sight for someone with NO sense of direction; so easy to lose your way
You can’t be in Mildura and not visit a fruit orchard so we took a tour at Orange World in a little train. The orange orchard grows different sorts of oranges, avocados, mandarins and is owned by an Italian couple, Mario and Maria. Mario arrived as a picker in the 1970’s, fell in love with and married Maria, the daughter of the owner. He is now in charge. A gorgeous couple. The plantation has 10,000 trees and uses only 4 pickers to pick all the fruit!!!
After Mildura we drove through Renmark and then on to a fantastic little Heritage Pub for lunch called The Overland Corner Pub. The sights and smells reminded me of Mornington. We had a great lunch and as we left, it just started to rain and we drove through rain for the rest of the day. We stopped for afternoon tea at Burra a fantastic little town that used to be a copper mining town and now has lots of stone buildings, shops, houses, pubs and very friendly people.
Port Pirie and Port Augusta are port towns with large wheat silos, old railway stations and both on the Spencer Gulf. Not much else to offer. The lookout tower at Port Augusta gave us the view of the Spencer Gulf.
We explored the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens which is just outside Port Augusta on the Stuart Highway heading towards Woomera. We had a fantastic few hours at the park which contained beautiful Australian trees and shrubs all labelled and of course we probably won’t remember any of the names. We interrupted our explore and had tea, scones, quandongs and cream to get out of the rain.
Our drive to Woomera was a fantastic, straight road, vast areas of no trees but low shrub growth which was quite green as there had been some rain over the past few days.
Woomera is a most amazing place with old rockets, planes and missiles labelled and on display out in open areas. It is a very structured and organised little town that only exists because of the Woomera Rocket Range.
Blog 1
We left Sydney on Wednesday 26 October and after spending time in Melbourne catching up with both sides of the family we started on our new adventure on Monday 31 October. The Western Highway took us to our first stop, Ararat.
We had a fantastic day in Ararat. We walked through the beautiful Alexandra Gardens including a beautiful orchid glass house. Ararat is in fact the orchid city. We took a tour of J ward, which was the gaol for the criminally insane. A blue stone gaol building with some dreadful stories which are very recent. The gaol was closed in 1991 and held the insane prisoners since 1930’s. It included the introduction of Lithium drugs in the 1960’s. The conditions were terrible and the stories even more terrible.
The Gum San Chinese Heritage Centre records the events of the founding of Ararat which involved the march of 700 Chinese from Robe in South Australia to Ararat to avoid a tax imposed by the Victorian Government of the day. The Chinese had stopped to rest and discovered a huge vein of gold and this started a gold rush in the area and established the town.
One Tree Hill Lookout in Ararat provided a view of the whole area and finally we took a tour of Seppelts Vineyard and the underground tunnels called drives which hold the wines for maturity. A plaque which commemorates the founder of AFL (Australian Football League – Aussie Rules), Thomas Wills, is Moysten’s claim to fame.
We made Halls Gap in the Grampians our home base for the next few days. The weather was beautiful which was an added bonus to the beautiful scenery. We started with the Boroka Lookout where there was a magnificent view of the valley and the mountains and then proceeded to the Reed lookout with a rock formation that was called the “Balconies”. The views were spectacular. Our third stop for the morning was the Mackenzie Falls and Broken Falls. It was a bit of a walk but the falls were very beautiful and definitely worth the effort. A 4WD track provided the most spectacular view over looking the valley between the Wonderland Range and the Mount William Range. The last waterfall was the Silverband Waterfall which was spectacular because the waterfall didn’t end in a lake but rather the whole volume of the water went underground. A most amazing sight.
The weather had changed and it was raining and windy so we decided to head to Mildura via Horsham and Ouyen.
The weather was beautiful again and the Murray River was fantastic even with the mosquitoes. Mildura has a lovely feel to it. It has wide streets, friendly people, fantastic fruit orchards and vineyards everywhere.
The sky was blue and the air was cool and it was a perfect day for a river cruise on the Rothbury Paddle Steamer down the Murray. We passed through the No. 11 loch and the captain gave us some of the history of the paddle steamers and the early settlers. The pace of the paddle steamer was slow, the weather was sunny, the birds were flying around and we had a great 2 hours.
We stopped to look at the Old Homestead of the Chaffey Bros who founded Mildura. Canadian brothers who started to irrigate the area.
The next must see spot was Wentworth, a small town just over the Murray in NSW where the mighty Darling River joins the mighty Murray River. Just out of Wentworth are the Perry Sand Hills which are fine red sand dunes. We climbed the sand dunes to see beautiful Red River Gums, some up to 1000 years old, with most of their massive trunks covered with the beautiful fine red sands. A terrifying sight for someone with NO sense of direction; so easy to lose your way
You can’t be in Mildura and not visit a fruit orchard so we took a tour at Orange World in a little train. The orange orchard grows different sorts of oranges, avocados, mandarins and is owned by an Italian couple, Mario and Maria. Mario arrived as a picker in the 1970’s, fell in love with and married Maria, the daughter of the owner. He is now in charge. A gorgeous couple. The plantation has 10,000 trees and uses only 4 pickers to pick all the fruit!!!
After Mildura we drove through Renmark and then on to a fantastic little Heritage Pub for lunch called The Overland Corner Pub. The sights and smells reminded me of Mornington. We had a great lunch and as we left, it just started to rain and we drove through rain for the rest of the day. We stopped for afternoon tea at Burra a fantastic little town that used to be a copper mining town and now has lots of stone buildings, shops, houses, pubs and very friendly people.
Port Pirie and Port Augusta are port towns with large wheat silos, old railway stations and both on the Spencer Gulf. Not much else to offer. The lookout tower at Port Augusta gave us the view of the Spencer Gulf.
We explored the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens which is just outside Port Augusta on the Stuart Highway heading towards Woomera. We had a fantastic few hours at the park which contained beautiful Australian trees and shrubs all labelled and of course we probably won’t remember any of the names. We interrupted our explore and had tea, scones, quandongs and cream to get out of the rain.
Our drive to Woomera was a fantastic, straight road, vast areas of no trees but low shrub growth which was quite green as there had been some rain over the past few days.
Woomera is a most amazing place with old rockets, planes and missiles labelled and on display out in open areas. It is a very structured and organised little town that only exists because of the Woomera Rocket Range.
posted by Mike and Carol at
8:10 AM
