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Wonoka.
The first pastoral lease was taken out here in 1851 by John McKinlay and named Wonoka station. The Hundred of Wonoka was declared in 1877 and with the coming of the Farina railway a small town was surveyed and opened up for sale in 1880. In the same year the foundation stone of a Wesleyan Methodist church was laid (opened Nov 1881) and a postal service began. The railway reached the town in May 1882 and the station was called Hookina Station! The town emerged with the government school opening in 1887 with 26 pupils. Some optimistic farmers were growing wheat crops in 1880 as sales of farms began in May 1880. The 1881 census recorded 73 residents in the Wonoka district. By 1884 the government was getting no takers for land sales but the Wonoka Hotel was licensed in that year. By May 1885 some land acreages were being surrendered. With successive droughts and the low average rainfall wheat growers failed to make a living. But the town was useful as a stopping place and transport centre for travellers and it was near Hawker. A substantial railway station was built but it is in ruins today. The grasshopper plaque of 1888 convinced many farmers to walk off their lands. The Wesleyan church appears to have closed around 1890 but the Wonoka Hotel traded until 1949. The school closed in 1922 and the town disappeared except for some rubble, the cemetery and the remains of the railway barracks and hotel etc. Nearby by and further west along Wonoka Creek was the earlier settlement of Hookina founded in 1863 as a staging point on the route to Blinman copper mines. The Hookina-Wonoka area had a Catholic Church from 1885 to 1960 and school from 1885 to 1923.
Aroona Dam.
This reservoir in the hills to the west of Leigh Creek was built to provide water for the town and the brown coal mines. The Electricity Trust of South Australia designed and built the dam using around 160 post war immigrant workers. Work began on the reservoir in 1952 and the dam opened in 1957. Mt Aroona is 417 metres high and the rocks of the gorge are quite colourful with their red and purple colours. The reservoir can hold 7.5 gigalitres although the average rainfall of the hills is only about 180 mm a year. The concrete spillway is about 24 metres high and 236 metres long and when full the reservoir is 3.5 kms long. The dam site was selected to create a deep reservoir with as little surface area as possible to reduce solar evaporation of the water during the scorching summer months. Since 2016 water for Leigh Creek has come from an artesian supply that is then treated and filtered providing soft water that Adelaidians only wish for. Aroona Dam and sanctuary is now being considered for recreational use. For comparison Hope valley reservoir near Adelaide holds 2.9 just gigalitres. The landscape here has been denuded by feral goats and several rabbit plaques but it is steep, dramatic and impressively beautiful.
All aboard the Pichi Richi Railway @ Quorn station. Heading to Woolshed Flat along the old Ghan line.
"The Milky Way contains at least 100 billion planets and may have up to 400 billion stars." - Wikipedia
Looking across the Rawnsley Park dam towards Chace Range in the Flinders Ranges.
Emu chicks are just so wonderful with their striking patterns. Father takes primary care giver role so don't get between him and his chicks!
Sacred Canyon is one of the places in the Flinders Ranges National Park where you can explore some nice examples of the Aboriginal Art. It offers images that were engraved onto the stone surface, not painted with ochre or charcoal, possibly dating back tens of thousands of years and are testament to the rich cultural heritage of these people.
Best viewed large.
It was a very hot day when I visited, temperature was over 37c!
Below is a photo of some of the engravings I saw...
One of my favourite places, recently renamed Ikara, an Adynamathana word for Wilpena Pound,meaning "meeting place" in the language of the traditional people.
50 years since the last train used the line between Hawker and Quorn, there's still evidence of it, mostly in the form of old bridges, but also some sleepers and rusted dog spikes. The Ghan used this line as it made it's way to and from Alice Springs from 1929 to 1956 - Palmer Creek, South Australia.
recovery of the range native forest reserve after the bangor bushfire, which annihilated the area in january and february 2014 (it burned for over 31 days)
the prolifically flowering dominant understorey species here is the thorn wattle (Acacia continua)
7 Days worth of reasons to put the Flinders Ranges on your Aussie travel itinerary: www.redzaustralia.com/2017/08/flinders-ranges-south-austr...
Trying to get it right. I have photographed these trees before but didn't like how it worked out. 2 big trees under the setting Milky Way and Moon in Arkaba Creek, Moralana Scenic Drive north of Hawker. 3 shot vertical pano with lighting from 2 flash units processed in Photoshop. Sony lens on ETZ21 adaptor.
To see more photos from this Road Trip, please visit my web site at…South Australia/Northern Territory Road Trip 2024
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On Saturday 12/10/2024, NSU52 is seen at the head of the last Afghan Express for the season at Quorn station. NM25 had headed to the depot for the regular summer inspection.
Standing at the top of a lookout at Wilpena Pound.
As always, thanks for any comments, views or favorites, they are much appreciated!
Copyright © Paul Hollins. All my images are protected under international authors copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my explicit written permission.
Late afternoon, Eucalypt trees in the dry creek bed that runs out of Sacred Canyon area of, Flinders Ranges.
Many semi arid eucalypts 'sprout' multiple trunks from a single root system. This example was found at a breakfast stop between Arkaba and Wilpena.
Kanyaka Homestead.
This pastoral leasehold run was established in 1852 by Hugh Proby who disappeared shortly afterwards whilst returning from a visit to his Pekina Run near Orroroo. This was one of the very first leaseholds in the Flinders Ranges. The next leaseholder John Phillips (with Alexander Grant) had the many fine stone buildings erected in the late 1850s. It was a large and prosperous run except during drought years and provided employment for 70 men and their families. The drought in the 1860s saw the sheep numbers drop from 41,000 to 10,000. When the government resumed large parts of Kanyaka Run for agricultural settlement in the late 1870s, especially for towns like Wilson and Gordon which are now both ruined ghost towns, the run became unviable. Phillips just walked out of the leasehold in 1881 and the buildings were left to crumble. So the government closed down a viable sheep station for unviable wheat farms that caused untold heartache and agony for the farmers and their families. Wheat farms were never viable this far beyond Goyder’s line of demarcation between grain growing and pastoral regions. The station cemetery which is not accessible is across Kanyaka Creek. Dozens were employed on the run in its heyday and many died there too. The large woolshed catered for 24 shearers at once. The property buildings included: station homestead; overseers house; men’s kitchen and dining room; carpenter shop; stables; shearers’ quarters; various huts and sheds; blacksmith shop; cellars etc.