Eucla Telegraph Station The Eucla telegraph station was particularly important because prior to Federation in 1901, South Australia and Victoria used American Morse code, whereas the rest of the country used International Morse Code. So the station was staffed by both South Australian and Western Australian telegraphists – separated by a …
Borders Borders are interesting places – they mark a transition – in this case from the State of South Australia to the State of Western Australia. It is a transition of both space and time. Yes, Central Australia has its own timezone – our third time-zone since leaving home. So …
From Nullarbor Roadhouse it is easy to see that we are right in the middle of a great plain once covered by ocean. The land is salty and the topsoil is quite thin, making it pretty useless for intensive agriculture. The bedrock beneath is limestone and beneath that is a …
We slowed for Penong – home to 26 windmills, a roadhouse and a silo complex – and made our way to Nundroo. Nundroo, situated 152km from Ceduna, has a roadhouse and motel. The roadhouse is only open until 11.00 pm so if you are running short and it’s late at …
Streaky Bay to Ceduna From Streaky Bay it was time to fuel up and head back up the road around 90kms towards Ceduna. Ceduna itself is a sizeable town with some 3500 inhabitants. As a larger regional hub, it has plenty of services – and is the last comprehensive town …
Dawn at Streaky bay was spectacular. Up early for some photos and took in some of the historical walk to get the circulation going and hunt for a bakery. We found fresh bread at a bakery just near a granite stone commemorating the site of the original post and telegraph station …
After refuelling at Kimba, we returned to the long straight road. The road trains were impressive, thoroughly dwarfing our little red car, and passing them was quite the experience! But the plucky Citroen didn’t miss a beat. At times there were oversize loads coming the other way – a few …
Breakfast at Port Augusta – an imperious name for a mineral and grain port served by grungy railways, giant grain silos and container trucks with tandem trailers. We were told that there was fuel on the outskirts of the town, but it would be 144kms before we saw the next …
The road to Port Pirie took us along the Murray Riverland with ripe orange orchards, and then the land turned scrubby and a white fluff drifted across the road. Who would have thought this was now a cotton growing area! Clearly a successful cultivation, but with cotton being a water-thirsty …
