Barb and Darryl Gottago.....: Trip to South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales #4

Sat 22^nd September. Today we did a drive across to Warooka, down to Yorketown to Edithburgh (pronounced Edith-burg) and up the east coast to Stansbury and Port Vincent before heading West to Curramulka and down to Minlaton, Warooka and back to Corny Point.

At Edithburgh we went south to the Wattle Point Wind Farm – there are 55 turbines in this field which was finished in 2006. The towers are 67 metres tall, each tower has three segments and weighs 90 tonnes. The ‘box’ thing at the top of the tower weighs 51 tonnes. The blades are 40metres long each and weigh 7.5 tonnes.

We saw some nice flowers today. A yellow one and one that looks like a geranium hybrid.

On the way up the coast we stopped at Wool Bay and investigated the old Lime Kiln. Lime burning was an important industry along this coast until the 1950’s. It was mined along the coast, burnt here and shipped across to Adelaide to be used in mortar in the building industry. In 1908 there were three and another three added in 1910. The kiln we saw was built after 1921 but the plans for it were ‘altered’ and the kiln never burnt successfully due to draught problems.

looking south from the kiln

the water to East of Kiln

looking south from the jetty

There is a nice jetty at Wool Bay and a nice sandy bottom close to shore. We saw a group of four children being taught how to snorkel whilst we were here. I did think it inappropriate that they were taken out to the end of the jetty where all the fishermen had their lines in the water.

The people of SA seem to like their agaves and we saw more today with their big curling flowers. They really are spectacular.

Agave in flower

daisy

Wattle

Caravan Storage at Stansbury

an interesting flower at Stansbury

We saw lots of different wattles in flower and a lovely plant in Stansbury – Leucospermum.

Some lovely murals on sheds and café’s and then there were the seagulls waiting for us to give them our crumbs from our lunch.

Whilst following the shore front streets we even came across the ‘life guards chair’. Don’t think it used often though.

We stopped at Port Vincent and saw a ’leatherjacket fish’ in the shallows and then saw a squid caught off the jetty. To me it was small but there was no size restrictions applicable – so allowable to keep.

There is a lovely older home across from the jetty that really caught my eye.

a lovely older home

I am told by Darryl this is a small leatherjacket fish

Squid

We then travelled to Curramulka. The village in the hollow. Lots of great old homes here too and a metal sculpture of an Emu and a nice cactus garden near an old shed.

Emu

Cacti garden

We then headed back to Corny Point.

Sun 23^rd. Today we left Corny Point and made our way up through Minlaton to Maitland and on to Moonta. Got disorientated in Moonta as there are no signs indicating which way to go.

We found our way out and up to Wallaroo where we stopped at the ‘Office Beach Caravan Park’. This park is now owned by a young couple – Darren and Kristy, and there two children – who have been here for 7 weeks. They have made some massive changes to the park – removed four asbestos cabins, chopped out all the fine-needle pine trees, are repainting all the current cabins. Have put a jumping pillow into an area where the previous owners never parked vans, and knocked down the old camp kitchen and put in a new one. They have plans to relocated the entry into the park and build a new residence. The current residence will then become a three bedroom rental. In this park you are walking distance to the swimming enclosure [a 50 x 25 metre structure, with a 25m x 10m shallow end] and encompassed by three floating buffers; another 20metres and you are at the start of the jetty and on the other side of that is a stony beach and fishing area. Behind the park is the walk along the old Smelter sight and you are only a 5 minute walk up to the IGA or the nearest pub.

There are so many OLD miners homes and other buildings here in Wallaroo. A very interesting town.

Mon 24^th. Today we did a drive to Moonta Mines, Moonta and Moonta Bay and Port Hughes.

Moonta Mines has a self-drive tour map which is not difficult to follow and shows you a lot of the mining history. We even walked to the top of one of the Tailings Heaps to get a view point of the town. I was amazed that you could still see the markings in the tailings – considering it has been almost 100years since the last lot was piled there. Saw a lovely Miners Cottage with a beautiful garden and HAD to stop at the Sweet Shop in the old Post Office and Darryl HAD to stoop to get inside.

info centre at the old Moonta Railway station

snails on a pole

the green in the rock is indicative of copper

log walk up onto the tailings

You can still see the channels in the tailings heap

inside Hughes engine room.... Can you find the bee hive?

Watch you head Darryl!!!!!

A lovely old cottage - which was closed this day but we could still go around the garden

scrub wood fence

Agave in flower

Statice

?Ox-tongue plant

Moonta town is small but lots of nice old buildings, Moonta Bay is the new part of town and Port Hughes even newer.

Loved the 'Cousin Jenny' and 'Cousin Jack' indicators at the toilets

the 'Discovery of Ore' by Mr Ryan

Moonta Bay

Moonta Bay Jetty

A Blue Swimmer Crab

The boat ramp at Port Hughes has not long been revamped and now has 6 lanes for launching/retrieving boats. There are marked parking bays for 200 boat-trailers. We talked to an old Greek gentleman, who had travelled up from Adelaide that morning to his ‘beach-shack’ for the weekend. He had caught himself a couple of nice blue-swimmer crabs for his dinner.

Hughes Chimney at the Smelters at Wallaroo

The sign for the [non-existent] Ferry

Old Offices that are now overnight rentals

Tues 25^th. Today we travelled to Kadina. Well…… We had trouble finding the information centre, which is now situated on the road back to Moonta. The ladies there seemed really disinterested in assisting us, and the young lady who did help us appeared very eager to get back to her photocopying. Anyway we got the self-drive tour of Kadina and set off. The map is a bit difficult to follow (whether is because it is blurry or the streets aren’t named – I’m uncertain) and after we had missed the 5^th Point of interest we decided to give up. We went into the main area of town and that was a shambles. The roads are being redone and the sidewalks are being paved and a lot of the streets are now ‘one way’. We managed to find a park and then went for a walk to find a café and get a coffee. We found the ‘Cracked Pepper Café’ which was BRILLIANT. The ladies there made us a lovely coffee and they also had a lovely gluten free slice.

We left Kadina with mixed feelings and headed for Bute. What a lovely small town. Lots to see here.

small statice-like plants

old machinery at Bute

Bute Pub

We left Bute and headed north west to Port Broughton. An interesting town and a nice place to rest. The water in the harbour here has a tannin stain to it. Apparently the water goes up into a lake and then comes back on the tide.

Port Broughton

a school of whiting

Took an arty-farty shot under the 384 metre jetty.

The donation box at Alford RV stop

On the way back to Wallaroo we stopped at Alford and then went out to Tickera. Here we saw a tractor going out into the bay to get supplies from the fishing boat before returning to shore.