On the Road and at Home: camping

Entrance to Rawnsley Park Station

Sunset from Pugilist Lookout near Rawnsley Park

Rawnsley Park Station

Rawnsley Park Station is a 29,000 acre property and has been owned by various families since 1851. Today it is still a sheep property but also a tourist attraction and has accommodation including eco cabins, caravan sites both powered and unpowered as well as basic cabins and more luxury cabins and campsites. It is about a 5 hour drive from Adelaide and is in the southern Flinders Ranges. The nearest town is Hawker, about 30 km south of Rawnsley Park.

The Cazneaux tree

The Cazneaux Tree, also known as Cazneaux's Tree, is a Eucalyptus camaldulensis or river red gum that was made famous by the photographer Harold Cazneaux. It is located in the Australian state of South Australia in the locality of Flinders Ranges near Wilpena Pound.

Scenery en route

We have spent a few holidays in Rawnsley Park and many parts of the Flinders Ranges where we have camped in tents when our children were young, and then in our caravan since our retirement. The Flinders Ranges is probably our favourite area of South Australia and most years we have spent some time in these beautiful ranges. Over the years it has developed into a more touristy area but it is still enjoyable and still feels quite remote as there are many tracks and roads through the various valleys where you can feel quite isolated but also not far from civilisation.

Our holiday over Easter was with friends and family and friends of friends so our group was quite large, last count was 28. Our two adult children with their families made up our family group of 11.

This is the airstrip at Rawnsley. Our son and family had a 1/2hour flight over Rawnsley Park and Wilpena Pound.

The waterhole at Rawnsley Park

View of the Flinders Ranges from Rawnsley Park campground

View of our van and awning and the group setting up their camper trailers

Our 5 grandchildren posing for the photo

Entrance to old Wilpena Homestead

Entrance gate to the old Wilpena homestead

Sunset from Pugilist Lookout near Rawnsley Park

Another view from Pugilist Lookout

Rugged rock formations

This view was taken north of Wilpena resort, near the Cazneaux tree

This is a painting which we have in our lounge room which was painted about 30 years ago by a local man from our suburb who obviously loved the Flinders Ranges as much as we do. As you can see the dirt road is now bitumen. When we first visited here it was dirt road from Hawker through to Blinman.

Memories - GOING NORTH -On the road to Cooktown - 2013

Winter this year, 2018, has again been very cold and we seem to be content to stay home and hibernate. Sounds a bit boring and it has been, but apart from our short trip to the Flinders Ranges in July we have more or less stayed put, apart from lunches out with friends and visits to local coffee shops for a change of scenery!!

I have been going through the photos of our trip to Cooktown in 2013 which made me think I could post some photos, hence Cooktown Memories. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I have enjoyed going through them and bringing back some great memories.

A cold winter morning to start our trip north

We left home in July 2013 for our trip from Adelaide through New South Wales, and Queensland. The weather was cold and had the threat of rain, much like it is now in 2018, but we had the promise of much warmer weather as we headed north.

The green hills near Burra, South Australia

Ruins of Terowie Railway Station

Terowie Railway Station platform

A quick stop at Terowie, 220 km north of Adelaide, to look around the old town and the ruins of the railway station where Gen. Douglas McArthur made his famous speech in 1942 referring to the Battle of Phillipines, with the words "I shall return" which he used in a few of his speeches. I always thought the words referred to his return to Terowie! The town is now almost a ghost town, but it does have some beautiful old buildings and we always stop there to have a look around.

Our next stop was at Broken Hill, New South Wales. We stayed for 2 nights and enjoyed the sunset from the Broken Hill Mine lookout.

Broken Hill Sunset

Broken Hill Mine lookout at sunset

We left Broken Hill and headed to White Cliffs, an opal mining town north east of Broken Hill with a population of just over 100, many of the residents live underground.

Entrance to Jock's Place, underground.

Peery Lake,White Cliffs

Kangaroos near Lake Peery

Peery Lake is a short drive from White Cliffs and is in the Paroo Darling National Park. We had a few days stay in White Cliffs to visit my cousin who, in 2013, was the Park Ranger for the area.