Blinman to Arkaroola

June 26, 2018

Arkaroola.

After re-stocking at Leigh Creek we lunched at the bakehouse in Copley and then set off for the 130 km trip out to Arkaroola. Quite a challenging drive with many river and creek bed crossings. When we arrived at Arkaroola much to our surprise we had smashed the tap on the draw bar and lost all of the van from the van water tanks. Probably worse still, we discovered that the car to van cable connection had come adrift and had dragged some distance making the 12 pin connection allmost unrecognisable. After 2 days of asking it became obvious there were no 12 pin plugs in Arkaroola and we could not get one delivered in time. Later that week I spent a few hours cutting shutting and soldering what was left of the plug enough to provide all lighting to return to Copley where we could purchase a new plug. The tap is still to be repaired due to lack of plumbing supplies but a few cable ties soon
sealed the pipe enough to safely fill the tanks.

From the Stuart Highway showing the road we had just passed
from Blinman and the beautiful Angorichina Gorge.

A yellow footed wallaby along the road

The Arkaroola spinifex bush

Mount Painter on the Arkaroola ridgetop 4WD trip

A shot of the 4WD Ridgetop track

Memorial to Richard Thomas

The rugged Arkaroola terrain

Our 4WD and the members of our trip

Mt Painter by Sprigg

Yellow footed wallaby

Yaccas in Arkaoola

Here and below some panoramas from the Ridgetop

Lake Frome, glowing whit on the horison in the back ground

The first morning on site we had booked the 4WD to the top of Razor Ridge and return. A five hour return trip that was simply spectacular. We had a lovely guide, Wade, who was so informative and knowledgeable about the formation of the Gammon Ranges, the geology, flora, fauna as well as the Indigenous history of Arkaroola. He reminded me so much of my late brother Mark who studied science at Flinders University and did field trips into both Wilpena and the Gammon Ranges. We were also very fortunate to have a great group on the 4WD tour also. How that 4WD encountered all the terrain is still beyond me and I was so glad we had an expert at the wheel.

During this outing Wade also informed us on the Sprigg family, Reg and Grisilda, who had actually saved Arkaroola from continuing as a mining and pastoralist area. The Spriggs took petitions to the SA State Government and eventually after much lobbying, convinced the Government of SA to legislate that Arkaroola become a reserve where no mining or pastoralist activity could be continued. To this day it continues as a reserve and the Sprigg family still manage the property. In the first few years they eradicated some 96,000 wild goats which were decimating flora and fauna. There are still a few left but together with rabbits the Spriggs are getting the area back very much to its natural state.

The next day we did some self 4WD out to Bollabalana Spring the only water hole in the area with water in it. The drought has really struck hard here and we did walk into this water hole where we saw many yellow footed and euro wallabies. A very pleasant drive. After this we drove on to the old 1870’s Bollabalana Copper Smelter which was very unique to witness. How they ever took the smelted copper out who knows. It is said that they used camels to get it out of there. Quite incredible.

That evening we had booked a night visit to the observatory to undertake some star gazing. The skies in Arkaroola are well suited to this activity and they are currently building their 3^rd Observatory. Although there was a half moon we were very fortunate to view many stars and planets in the dark evening skies of Arkaroola. Our host for the evening was David Sprigg who is just so passionate about Arkaroola and all things about Arkaroola including his 3 observatory's and astronomy.