Flinder's Ranges

Hawker 

After the great train ride and a great lunch at Emily's in Quorn we headed for Hawker. In this region of South Australia you see the scattered ruins of homesteads from many years ago some are on farms where families have stayed and built newer houses but some are a reminder of the failed farms where the farmer was driven off by constant drought.

Kanyaka Homestead

Website:  http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/kanyaka.htm

http://www.southaustralia.com/info.aspx?id=9001180

The Kanyaka Station ruins consist of two main historical sites. The first is the woolshed which was one of the largest in the state and provided room for 24 blade shearers who shore thousands of sheep on fairly confined shearing floors. The main building is the homestead which housed the manager, his family and servants. Some of the original stone wall which protected the gardens is still visible. The Great Northern Railway also ran parallel to Kanyaka Station; the raised roadbed of the old narrow gauge railway can still be seen.

Wilson

Website:  http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/wilson.htm

 (House ruins and the well, these wells were a common structure back in the days of the Afghan Camel drives and some are seen through the Northern Territory)

(Copied from internet page)

As a result of a decade of excellent rains and many good seasons during the 1870's, farmers soon ignored Goyder's Line and believed that 'rain would follow the plough'. They moved north and east forcing the government to resume pastoral leases and resurvey and subdivide them for agricultural blocks and new towns to service them. During this very same time the railway from Port Augusta was pushed north to reach Maree by 1883. Along the railway several new towns were surveyed, including Wilson in 1880, on land which had previously been part of the Kanyaka pastoral run. It did not impress the local reporter who wrote in October, 'The government have begun surveying another township about three miles north of this place in about as waterless a spot as they could have picked'. The town was to consist of 174 blocks with the railway through the middle. There would also be three railway cottages on the northern site of the town The town of Wilson was proclaimed on 6 January 1881 and named by Governor Jervois after General Sir Charles Wilson. When established, its main purpose was to serve the new farming districts and their communities. With an average rainfall of 30 centimetres a year, and hopes of more, farmers flocked to Wilson and its surrounds to buy properties of 500 or 1,000 acres, at one pound per acre. In their haste to join the land rush many did not realise, or if they did, ignored the fact that most of the land had no natural water supply. One of the early farmers was James Grigg. He had taken up land in the Hundred of Appila in 1874. After battling for seven years he sold his holding to George Hollitt in 1881 and joined the rush to Wilson.

Hawker

We arrived in Hawker late in the afternoon and booked into the caravan park just on the northern edge of town, there are two parks owned by the same people the other one is right in town my preference would be the one we stayed.

The old Ghan Rail used to go through Hawker but the line was changed in 1956 so there are many ruins of places that served the rail right through the Flinder's Ranges.

 (Sturt Desert Pea)

Website:  https://www.anbg.gov.au/emblems/sa.emblem.html

 (The old Ghan Railway Station now a restaurant and gallery but only open in tourist season or group bookings)

(The old Ghan Rail workshop, water tank and watering point)

(Hawker Hotel/Motel)

 (The cemetery has a lot of history of pioneers and many died young but this one in later years  must have been a sad loss for the parents)

(I found this gate interesting obviously built by a blacksmith, there are no welds it is all shaped and steel rivets.)

Website:  http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/hawker.htm

(Copied from the internet site)

The town of Hawker was proclaimed on 1 July 1880 and named after George Collins Hawker, born in London in 1819. Hawker arrived in South Australia on the Lysander in September 1840. A year later he established the Bungaree run with his brothers and entered parliament in 1858, becoming speaker in 1860. He returned to England in 1865 and remained there until 1874. A year after his return to South Australia he was re-elected to parliament and served until his retirement in 1883.

Before the official proclamation, the Hawker area had already been taken up on pastoral leases, from as early as the 1850s, by such stations as Arkaba, Holowiliena, Warcowie, Wilpena and Wonoka. The town of Hawker was laid out, at a point on the centre-line of the Port Augusta and Government Gums railway, 65 miles 4,260 links from Port Augusta, to serve the new railway line which reached the new town in June 1880. It was expected to become a major service centre for both the railway and the pastoral and agricultural industries. At the first land sales, held on 15 July 1880, some of the allotments brought very high prices. The highest price of $492 was paid for the corner block nearest the railway on which the Royal Hotel now stands.

Hawker to Wilpena

(Old farm house)

 (ABC Ranges, this is on the right hand side of the road on the way to Wilpena)

(Elder's Ranges)

(South side of Wilpena Pound)

(The road into Wilpena Pound)

Wilpena Pound

Websites:   http://www.wilpenapound.com.au/explore-flinders-ranges/

                 http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/wilpena.htm

(Hills Homestead)

 (The aboriginal story)

 (Along the walk to the homestead)

(On the way up to Wangarra Lookout trees grow in the rocks)

(Wilpena Pound from Wangarra Lookout)

(Nancy and I at Wangarra Lookout)

(Another view from Wangarra Lookout)

Wilpena to Blinman

(Wilpena Pound from Hucks Lookout)

Trezona

(Trezona Campground is a great place to camp and if you intend camping in many areas for a long time it is better to purchase a two month period online)

 (Our campsite)

(The view of Wilpena from the hill nearby)

 (Same place different photos)

(The riverbed near the camp)

(Campfire at night)

Great Wall of China

 (The Great Wall of China)

(You can understand how it got it's name a natural wall of rocks along the hill top)

 (The track down from the Great Wall of China)

Blinman

(Blinman from the lookout)

 (Blinman from the information bay)

(1864 to 1866 graves in the middle of town)

(Some of the historic buildings) 

(Blinman Hotel)

(Old house at Blinman)

Website:   http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/blinman.htm

Blinman to Parachilna

                                                            (Parachilna Road)

                                              (Parachilna Road alongside our campsite)

                                                   (Our camp 12kms from Parachilna)

 (One of the creeks near the campsite)

(Walk in the hills near the camp, many goats around this country)

 (Campfire started)

(Bit cold out here)

(Cooking dinner)

(Potatoes in the coals, tin of peas heated on the side and sausages in the pan)

Parachilna to Hawker

We left the campsite on the Parachilna road and headed for the Parachilna to Hawker road, we did not go into Parachilna itself which is a small township but we did pull up on the side the road to take some photos of the ranges.

(Photo is taken from the side of the road near Parachilna)

(The above four photos are of ruins near Commodore  Homestead we believe it to be an old rail siding )

(These two photos are taken from different angles, it has been described differently by people but we believe it to be a settlers cottage and probably the most photographed in the Flinder's Ranges as it is close to the road)

Surveyors Lookout

(Surveyors Lookout)

Hookina

Hookina

Websites:    http://history.flindersranges.com.au/places/hookina/

          http://dspace2.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2328/788/1980010011020_FINAL.pdf?sequence=1

          http://www.hawkervic.info/history-of-the-area/

Hookina’s position near permanent water and on a relatively easy crossing of the ranges gave it life. Before it was surveyed as a township in 1863, there was a twelve room inn, a stable and blacksmith shop to cater for passing traffic and nearby stations. Up to 130 teamsters camped at Hookina overnight before the railways came. Most of them would have had a meal or two, and a drink or two at the old pub.

 (Hookina Ruins. The Old Ghan Rail used to go near this building above, the building is quite large and a short distance away has a rectangle concrete storage with lockable lid as seen in the foreground above.)

(Above you can see a well or ground tank near the building, below is what people have used as a rubbish bin and it must have been people from town as there are garden refuse , broken TV, chairs and electric fan )

(The following notes copied from the internet page)

Mincham says it was the liveliest of the little townships surveyed along the copper route from Blinman and Yudnamutana through the Hookina Valley to the coast.  The government sank a line of wells between Port Augusta and the mines and surveyed a small township at each well in 1863.These townships were Yarrah, Mt Eyre, Hookina, Mern Merna, Edeowie and Parachilna along the western plain and through the Hookina Valley. Other townships were surveyed near and named after the Nuccaleena and Oratunga Mines.Hotels, eating houses and other buildings to service teamsters made up most of these tiny towns.

During the great drought of the 1890s the Hookina pub was almost covered by drifting sand and the owner, George Glass closed it down in 1897. Glass took the roofing iron off and then built a store at Wonoka (Hookina Siding). His wife was post mistress there for some years.

A Catholic church built at Hookina in 1885 was demolished in 1966.  The township has been in ruins for many years.

Stuart Nicol wrote for the RAA in 1998: ‘there is now precious little to show for its brief heyday. A bit of chimney wall and scattered heaps of rubble will be seen. But leave the car… As you walk on to the higher ground, suddenly in view is a great sweeping bend of the Hookina Creek… With the surrounding plain and the Mt Eyre Range as a backdrop, it is a powerful vision’.

 (There must have been a great force of water to break these steel sections below and move such large trees)

( The bridge that the railway used to cross the creek at this point was 840 feet long. On Saturday the 14^th February 1955 the bridge was washed away. Heavy rain fell around the Hawker area and more than 10 inches of rain was recorded at Warcowie Station. The Wonoka creek and many others were in massive flood and fed into the Hookina creek. On the same night bridge on the new and not completed broad gauge line further West of Hookina Siding was also washed away.)

(Above shows the river bank on the left with the old bridge supports for the rail line)

(The Hookina Creek suffered large floods in 1914, 1955 and 2007, seen in this photo above the large trees trapped in the flood by these two large standing trees)

 (Our campfire)

 (Views of the old ruins at sunset)

 (The evening stars and moon)

(Western sky at sunrise)

Leaving Flinder's Ranges-

After a great visit we returned to Hawker Caravan Park for a couple of days to do washing and get water then it was time to head east, leaving Hawker we turned off at the RM Williams Highway towards Peterborough passing some more ruins and small villages such as Cradock.

(Cradock Hotel and its interesting items below)

 (South Australia has these signs on the roads)

 We had a great time in the Flinder's even though the weather at times was testing it was worth the visit as you can see by some of these photos and we did not go off road.

Cheers

.