Monday 30 August 2010

Flinders Ranges Part III







On Sunday we confirmed with our hosts that we would be staying another night and set off to explore Wilpena Pound, first taking a walk through Sacred Canyon taking in some more Aboriginal Engravings and some magnificent slate walls of the Canyon.
Then we were off to the Old Wilpena Homestead to explore how the first settlers there spent their lives. Whilst it looks very romantic, at various points throughout there are reminders of what a tough life it was for everyone. At one hut there are detailed instructions about how to built a slab hut finishing with the advice not to put a lock on the door because ‘you will already have your hat on and the tobacco in your pocket’ implying that the most valuable possessions you have will always be with you.
The women certainly had their share of trials providing for their families and I suspect some wondered what had possessed them to come in the first place. It is recorded by one visitor to the station that the lady of the homestead had boiled some eggs, placed the remaining water in a saucepan lid and scrubbed her six sons with the water and then had some left to give water to the chickens. I bet those boys knew they had been ‘scrubbed’! Droughts and floods often deprived them of their prosperity and forced them to start again as there was no alternative and I guess everyone was in the same boat at the same time so burdens were shared.
The trees within the station are just amazing and some have been here since the station was settled. Ian is standing in front of one such tree which bordered the original cattle yards.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

G’day Sue and Ian

The dialogue and pictures are awesome and the continued reference to Pete and Flos’s inheritance entertaining to say the least. Sue I can see a book in all this. I reckon you have done enough writing to create a marketable and remarkable travel diary. You know something like Ian and Sue – Grey nomad explorers or Australia’s ten best places to empty your toilet! I think a picture of Sue sitting beside the road blogging is a must. Keep em coming I need something to keep me sane for the next couple of weeks. I went in for shoulder surgery last week and the travel dairies are a bonus. Ian we had a house fire in Goornong (one in a hundred year event) but we managed to save the walls (no chimney) It was John Farnham’s Mansion. Over a million in damage. When we do it we do it big. We even had the Bronty from Bendigo (ladder Platform).
The photo of the old camper in the Alice to Port Augusta post I have seen. I think its Victorian and is often at historic events around Bendigo. This is truly an amazing country and I am half serious when I said the blog could become a Grey Nomad best seller.

Love the Pattos