Day 23 - Friday 16/8/24, Hawker

After a few heavy showers of rain over night we woke to dry skys to hook up the car and van. We didn't set off from Peterborough early as we didn't have far to travel, arriving at Hawker about lunch time. From first impressions it just looks like a sleepy little outback SA town. I really wanted to stay at Rawnsley Park, a station stay at the base of the Flinders Rangers, but its quite popular, and it was booked out.

The town of Hawker was named after George Charles Hawker in 1880, he was the Commissioner of Public Works at the time. It's a tiny settlement which describes itself 'The Hub of the Flinders Ranges' as it's at the junction of roads from Port Augusta, Marree, Orroroo, Blinman and Wilpena Pound. The rainfall in the Hawker area is as low with the climatic zone officially described as semi-arid. Historically a few years of serious drought were enough to wipe out several substantial wheat farms which had briefly prospered in the area. Today the town is driven by tourism and visitors drive through on their way to explore Wilpena Pound and the beauties of the Flinders Ranges.

The caravan park is a nice easy walk into town to have a look around. We visited the information centre to get some maps to visit Flinders rangers tomorrow.

Day 24 Saturday 17/8/24 - Flinders Rangers.

I thought today was meant to be clear, but there was quite a bit of heavy cloud around. We decided to stick to our plans to visit the Flinders Ranges anyway, so with coffee and lunch packed we set off. The Ranges were covered in mist and cloud. Some of the roads were like travelling on a wet day down South of WA.

The Flinders Ranges - named after explorer Matthew Flinders, are the largest mountain ranges in South Australia, which starts about 200 km north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over 430 km from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. Its most well-known landmark is Wilpena Pound, a formation that creates a natural amphitheatre covering 80 km2 and containing the range's highest peak, St Mary Peak (1,171 m (3,842 ft)).

Our first stop was Wilpena Information centre to get a parks pass - it was $10.00 for the day - not too bad. All roads were open with caution, so off we set to get some 4WD in. Once you turn off the bitumen road, you begin to meander through hills, gorges and creek beds. We didn't bother with Wilpena Pound as its not something you can really see from ground level. So we continued on through Bunyeroo Gorge (it had signs to whatch for quolls), Brachina Gorge (if lucky you might see yellow footed wallabies), Parachilna Gorge (lots of free camping). The tracks were fairly easy to navigate with a few stoney patches, a lot of the tracks were actually the creek beds between the gorges, so the views were rather picturesque.

We were recommended to stop at "Wadna" an arts and craft place showing and selling Aboriginal stuff. We had a look - same old stuff. A mulga waddy stick would have set you back $495.00. I saw the exact same carved wooden lizard decorated with burn marks that we bought 33 yrs ago at our Kintore visit, which we paid about $10.00 - it was $140.00 in this place.

We continued onto Blinman where we stopped for our picnic lunch. It's a tiny isolated settlement on the edge of the South Australian desert. Even when copper was found, it struggled to transport the mineral economically from the mine to the nearest ports. Today the settlement verges on being a ghost town although there has been a commitment to tourism with the Blinman Underground Experience open in 2011. Still, beyond the mine tour there is little more than a pub and a few houses in the main street

Blinman could have been named Peg Leg which was the nickname of the one-legged shepherd, Robert Blinman, who gave his name to the town. It was an acknowledgement that Robert Blinman had discovered copper in the area in 1859.

While eating lunch the sun decided to poke out from the clouds, but the wind was still rather chilly. Back in the car it was a straight 106km run back to Hawker on the bitumen road. The only wildlife we saw throughout the day were a couple of emus, an echidna running across the road, white cockies and lots of dead kangaroos. The round trip was 277 km which took us 6 hrs to complete.

Day 25 Sunday 18/8/24 - Hawker town site

Typical - woke to clear blue sky and sunshine! Today we planned to be fairly relaxing before we start our return journey home. We took a walk up to Castle rock, its only 1km up the road Rob said. When we reached the top I read the pamphlet to learn more and it said 1km up the road, turn into a gate and follow the track up the hill for another km! So that was some good exercise with a 4km walk. Great views at the top.

There is also a police hill which we didn't walk up but a fun fact - it got its name as it was the paddock were the police horses were kept and used as a pound for stray stock that came into town. The first police came to town in 1880, a residence and watch house was not built until 1883. Before this, lawbreakers were tied to a pole until they could be taken to a proper jail 😊.

The Town of Hawker has a couple of interesting heritage trails we walked around with explanations of what places use to be. There is a studio type place called the Jeff Morgan Gallery, he is a local person who worked in the forestry industry, was a house painter, went through a rough patch in life, and found his feet when he begin painting art in his 40's. He is world known for his panorama paintings, and the gallery is like an Aladdin's cave that showcases his work and the history of the region. The largest rock, crystal, gem collection I have ever seen. His paintings are outstanding. The 360 mural is 45m long and 5.5m wide, taking 11 months with painting about 3-4 hrs a day. He would get up at 4am when it was quiet to do his painting. If you are ever passing through Hawker it is well worth a visit.

The gallery shop has a large collection of rocks and collections. Some fossil like rocks that caught Robs eye were called "bunny slippers", he was fascinated by them, so I said he should buy one, his comment was how can you buy just one, you must have a pair 😊.

Leptopius that come mainly from the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia but are abundant along 300 miles of the South Australian coast up to the West Australian Border, and for about 40 miles inland. They are from Leptopius Beetle because occasional cocoons have been found with identifiable pupal remains still inside. Most of the cocoons from Australia are in the region of 100,000 years old, but some are much more recent and so heavily "lithified" that they have a fossil appearance. The Australians call them "bunny slippers", "fairy shoes" or "fairy clogs" and they are frequently erroneously sold as "fossil wasp nests"

The adult beetle spends its life in generally acacia or wattle, eating foliage. It lays eggs in the tree and when they hatch, the grubs come down the trunk and burrows underground where they feed in the roots of the tree. At maturity, they secrete a sticky substance that causes sand and fine gravel to stick to them and this hardens to form a protective camouflaged case in which they can safely pupate. After a few months, the adult beetle emerges after making a hole in the case and the cycle starts again.

Tonight we are treating ourselves to a pub tea, and then tomorrow we head west for home, into lots of rain by the weather forecast!