Beltana Homestead - 16 to 23 July 2009

From Wilpena we drove to Blinman and then towards Leigh Creek.

Blinman is yet another copper mining town.

It has survived the closing of the mine to become a way stop for those going North, proving that good coffee and clean toilets will keep any town going. There is an excellent cafe 'The Wild Lime Cafe" with great coffee and exotic pies such as Red Curry Kangaroo.

Driving from Blinman we saw a sign for Beltana Homestead and enquired if we could stay for the night, which we did.

  

That evening we drove the 45kms south to the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna, to eat what they call “Feral Cuisine.”

 

 

John had the "Road Kill Grill" comprising Kangaroo and Emu fillets and Camel sausage. Tricia more conservatively ate the National Coat of Arms, starting with Emu Pate and Wattle Seed lavosh and finishing with grilled kangaroo. The food was great.

Beltana is 463,000 acres of working sheep and cattle station, very significant in the development of outback Australia and now on the Historic Register.

It is the Station where Elders Pastoral Company started. Sir Thomas Elder, the second owner, imported the first Camels and Beltana became one of the most successful breeding studs and largest depots for camels in Australia. The camels were very useful in opening up the very dry inland with their Indian [colloquially known as Afghan] camel drivers.

In 1875 Ernest Giles’ Expedition set off from the Homestead to find an overland route to Perth.  He succeeded but failed to find the rich grazing lands so no reward for him.

We found the Homestead with its 1860 vintage shearers quarters shown here, an ideal base for exploring the surrounding region, so stayed for the week. Evenings brought Graham the owner and the other hands back to the workshop next to the shearing shed, where the days activities were discussed. Sunset brought an amazing stillness as we lit the evening fire to cook dinner and watched the stars, so bright and clear that at first even well known constellations such as the Southern Cross seemed unfamiliar, surrounded as they are by many more stars than we are used to seeing.

Over the following days we visited Beltana Township, another historic copper town. Although largely abandoned, some is preserved, including significant buildings such as the Victoria Hotel, shown left and a Nursing home started by the Australian Inland Mission. In 1911 Beltana was briefly the Parish of John Flynn who took two fledgling and unproven technologies, the pedal radio and the aeroplane and melded them to form the Flying Doctor Service thus bringing medical care to isolated communities. This was his church. He was a superintendant of the Australian Inland Mission and his vision was to have a hospital and nursing home within 100 miles of the place of residence of every outback woman and child.

Beltana was for a while the railhead for the first Ghan railway and a repeater station for the overland Telegraph which went via Adelaide and Darwin to London. The main north road went through the town. Realignment of the railway and the road and closure of the mine meant it no longer had a reason for being.

The following day we hiked to Blinman Pools, which were reached from Angorichina after a 5km rock scramble, made harder because of the recent rains.

On the 20th we decided to drive the 4wd track to Lake Torrens.  This went well until we came to the third and final sand hill blown across the track and failed to traverse it, getting ourselves bogged.

After two hours of digging to no avail we contacted the Homestead and two of the station hands came to tow us out so we could continue on our trip to the lake. It shows the value of having radio and phone contact with the station, as it was not hard to imagine how isolated and helpless we would have been without the ability to get help. It is not surprising the unprepared die in this country every year.

The next day after that excitement, we had a very sedate walk around historic Blinman. Tricia had emu pie for lunch this time.

 

We drove back through Glass Gorge which has stunning vies of Wilpena Pound and the Flinders Ranges.

 

The following day we did the 4wd track to Puttapa Springs.  Puttapa Station is the home of the Ragless family.  Graham Ragless now owns both Puttapa and Beltana Stations and runs them as a combined operation with his wife Laura. 

 

We enjoyed our time at Beltana, the historic buildings, still in use today, the varied landscapes and particularly the chance to see the rhythm of the working day for those who live on the Station and to learn how an operation like this runs and survives despite the harsh and challenging environment.