Thinking Allowed

Beer Signage in Ballarat, Victoria

2025-05-19T01:54:49Z

I enjoy spotting old advertisements or business names of times gone by. While the Royal Oak Hotel’s sign isn’t that old it advertises Ballarat Bitter, a beer that’s no long brewed in Ballarat, Victoria (other than one-off special brews).

Ballarat Bitter signage on Royal Oak Hotel wall.

The next two photographs are to be found on an old building which may at one time have been a hotel. I’ll try to find out.

Ballarat Bitter.

… and on the opposite wall of the same building an advert for Victoria Bitter.

Victoria Bitter.

On to Ballarat

2025-04-22T11:50:00Z

The final leg of this phase of the tour was to Ballarat.

The land around Echuca is the flat Riverine Plain with its many irrigation channels; heading further south brings us towards the Central Highlands and its many vineyards. The Colbinabbin Range divides the two.

The climb up the Colbinabbin Range.

Looking back to the Riverine Plain at the start of the climb up the Colbinabbin Range.

1200 km to Echuca

2025-04-21T07:56:54Z

Over the past few days I’ve driven the 1,200 km from Arkaroola Village in north South Australia, to Broken Hill (NSW), Mildura (Victoria), and today to Echuca on the Murray River.

Echuca was a major river port to which goods were transported by river then loaded to the railway for the journey to Melbourne.

The river level at Echuca is low at the moment, there’s not been much rain in its catchment area of late.

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A side channel of the Murray River at Echuca.

The remains of the railway that led to the Echuca Wharf has been left in place to mark the once busy transport route.

Rail line to Echuca Wharf..

On the wharf itself is found a static display of a locomotive and wagons used to move cargo to and from steamers on the river.

Railway history on display on Echuca Wharf.

There are tens of steamers and houseboats here on the river at Echuca. It’s a popular tourist destination. The photograph below is of the 1911-built PS Pevensey using the power of its original steam engine to ply the river.

PS Pevensey on the Murray River at Echuca.

Acacia Ridge and Mawson Valley walks

2025-04-18T10:33:49Z

Two bushwalks today. As I did yesterday, I started a bit before 7 am to beat the heat. I did the 5.5 km Acacia Ridge walk first given that it’s the more strenuous of the two walks given the short but steep climb up.

The views from Acacia Ridge are quite extensive and more so early in the day where shadows over the terrain add to the overall texture of the land.

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View from Acacia Ridge, Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

Arkaroola Village can be seen nestled in the Ranges; a view from Acacia Ridge.

Looking back to Arkaroola Villa from Acacia Ridge.

As a bonus for my early morning efforts I saw a yellow-footed rock-wallaby cross the track in front of me. These wallabies are extremely nimble traversing rock faces that look sheer.

A yellow-footed rock wallaby on Acacia Ridge, Arkdaroola.

The second walk was the 8.5 km trek along the Mawson Valley. In my opinion it’s not especially photogenic hence just the one photograph from it. I much prefer to be above all the terrain and look down upon it.

Rock formation on Mawson Vally, Arkaroola

Mt. Warren Hastings

2025-04-17T08:11:40Z

Today’s goal was to get to the top of Mt. Warren Hastings. It’s a trip I’ve done a few times before now and is special in that it gives excellent views of the Arkaroola area and the surrounding Flinders Ranges. I started walking early at 6:50 am to beat the worst of the day’s heat - it was forecast to reach 30°C or thereabouts, not the best temperature to ascend the hill. The round trip was about 16 km and took a little under 4 hours.

This first photograph is one of the first glimpses of the peak as I approach. If you enlarge the image you can just make out the “pimple” atop the crag.

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Mt. Warren Hastings viewed from the approach.

And here’s a zoomed in view of the pimple taken from the same location as the first photograph. It doesn’t look so far away now.

The cairn atop Mt. Warren Hastings.

Once at the top there’s a 360 degree view of the surrounding ranges. The early(ish) morning light cast shadows enough to give a 3D impression of the ranges. The “pimple” is the cairn to the right of this image.

Looking towards Arkaroola Village from the top.

Turning around we can see Lake Frome which is the narrow strip of salt on the left-hand-side horizon.

Looking across to Lake Frome on the horizon.

Up into the Outback proper

2025-04-16T09:42:28Z

Today’s travel took me from Peterborough to the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. The journey north is about 300 km of sealed road to Leigh Creek, then east for 150 km of extremely dusty dirt road.

At the Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre in Peterborough yesterday we were told of the Walloway rail accident in 1901. I actually knew about this as I’d passed the sign pointing to the memorial several times over the years. Today, on my journey north, I diverted to the memorial (below). It’s a stone monument located at a now unused rail crossing near to where the accident happened.

The text reads:

“Commemorating The Walloway Rail Accident

“This monument was erected to mark the centenary of the Walloway railway accident that occurred near this site at 2:30 am on 16 November 1901.

“A south bound train loaded with 170 bullocks suffered brake failure on the descent into Walloway speeding through the unlit siding and smashing head on into a north-bound train loaded with flour and copper ore. Sam Eager the firemen on the stock train was killed instantly. His counterpart on the mixed train, Jack Brodie, also died at Walloway 2½ hours after being pulled out of the wreckage by Mick McCauley, a passenger on the train.

“Both engine drivers miraculously survived although one suffered severe burns.

“Both trains were wrecked. Flour, ore and dead bullocks were scattered and mixed with smashed rolling stock. The injured stock were shot by Trooper Beinke of the Orroroo Rifle Club.

“Two young girls Nell and Bridget Kain, ran from their home nearby to give first aid and comfort to the injured men. Each of the girls later received a gold watch and chain from the South Australian railways in recognition of their brave and humane action.”

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Memorial to the 1901 Walloway Rail Accident near the site.

All that remains of the track at Walloway.

All that’s left of old rail line at Walloway, South Australia.

Many years ago, on a similar journey north to Arkaroola, we stopped at this site at Italowie Gorge to observe a couple of palm trees (not native to this area). I stopped today to check them out. Some of the fronds look quite brown but I don’t know if that’s natural or due to the lack of rain.

Palm trees at Italowie Gorge, South Australia.

And a few metres further on I noticed a large number of emus wandering away. There were about 20 of them. I think that there were two families here given that I’ve never heard of so many in one family being managed by their dad, and there appeared to be two larger emus in the group.

Emus at Italowie Gorge, South Australia.

Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre, Peterborough

2025-04-15T06:01:20Z

I spent the morning on a guided tour of the Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre. While I’ve travelled through Peterborough many times on my way to or from the northern Flinders Ranges, I’d never previously visited the Centre.

The railway reached Peterborough (or Petersburg as it was called at that time), from Port Pirie to its west, in 1880. Lines to the south and north wwere opened in 1881 and 1882. As mining developed at Silverton in NSW near what is now Broken Hill, a line was opened to there in 1888.

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Restored T-class locomotive T199 on static dispay.

Steamtown is home to a several steam and diesel locomotives - none of which are in an operational condition these days.

Over time as other Australian states extended their own rail networks, and utilising different rail gauges, it became necessary to unload then reload goods onto different wagons, or to change the bogies under the carriages.

At one point Steamtown had all three gauges present in its yards.

The three rail gauges.

There are several types of carriages on display, the best of those being this first-class lounge car. It originally has a divider separating men and women, but not long after it was seperating smoking from non-smoking.

AF-class Lounge Car.

When railway tradesmen (carpenters, plumbers, etc) were required to work away at a location with no accomodation, they utilised this carriage.

Employees Sleeping Van.

From Port Augusta to Peterborough

2025-04-14T10:54:18Z

Today’s journey took me from Port Augusta on the Spencer Gulf eastwards to inland South Australia at Peterborough.

First stop was a short backtrack to Quorn where the Scruffy Fella Café does a pretty decent cup of coffee.

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Scruffy Fella Café, Quorn.

As you might expect by now I followed roads less travelled to visit parts of the country that most travellers miss out on. I passed Wilmington and was able to capture the dusty, drought-impacted, loose dirt, nature of the country with paddocks being prepared for coming plantings.

Tractor and implements hidden in the dust, near Wilmington.

Next stop was at Booleroo Whim on the Willowie-Booleroo Road, a Government well dug to supply water for settlers until they could secure their own water supply. It was 90 feet deep and given that it was a whim would have been powered by horses or bullocks raising and lowering buckets.

Booleroo Whim.

Built nearly 150 years ago, in 1880, this stone building (below) was built by Arwakurra settlers to establish a school for their children. It was in use until 1951. A post office had been built nearby n 1876 and was in use until 1959. Nothing remains of the latter building.

Arwakurra School, 1880-1951.

Appila Springs was used as a watering place as stock were moved around the country. It’s located north-east of Appila, a tiny town midway between Port Pirie and Peterborough. I was a little surprised to find that there was still water in the waterhole given how desperately dry the drought-impacted area is.

Appila Springs.

South Australia is well know for the amount of power generated by renewable energy sources. While I have seen more than a few solar farms on my traves so far, I have seen wind farms almost everywhere I’ve been. This strings of turbines (many more out of shot) were located near Tarcowie.

Wind generated power, Tarcowie, South Australia.

Port Augusta

2025-04-13T06:58:19Z

Although mid-Autumn it’s still a tad warm today with a top of 35.1°C (so far). I did my walkabout early(ish) this morning to miss the worst of the heat though it was 32°C by 9:30 am.

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Main Beach, Port Augusta.

The Main Beach, while sandy, doesn’t extend very far - probably not quite 200 metres.

Unloading camels, 1884, Port Augusta.

Being at the top of the Spencer Gulf, Port Augusta was a natural place to unload camels for their use as transport into the arid country to the north. The above photograph’s caption describes the scene as being that of 300 camels being unloaded from the SS Bengal. You have to wonder how much fodder and water was required for the trip from, presumably, the Middle East and beyond.

Unloading camels, 1890, Port Augusta.

Camels were eventually supplanted to an extent in the 1920’s as rail and road transport infrastructure moved further north.

Old Wharf with associated railway lines, Port Augusta.

The now unused, and fenced off, old wharf.

Looking across the harbour, Port Augusta.

And a view across the channel at Main Beach.

In and around Port Lincoln

2025-04-11T09:25:05Z

Port Lincoln is quite abuzz with tourists, grey nomads and their caravans. As suggested by the name of the town there are plenty jetties.

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Loading freighter with grain from silos.

While I took quite a few photographs of the foreshore and jetties, I didn’t capture street life (they’re just common or garden streets in yet another town.

The Town Jetty.

Apparently I walked nearly 13.8 km and 18,000 steps according to my exercise logger today.

A travel day - from Quorn to Port Lincoln.

2025-04-10T11:21:45Z

I drove from Quorn to Port Lincoln today, taking my time via an inland route. As I am want to do some of the route was on roads less travelled. One dirt road named Dog Fence Road was in very good condition and very quiet - I only saw one vehicle in the tens of kilometres on that road.

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Dog Fence Road near Konanda, South Australia.

I didn’t recognise any of the fencing as being dog fences and, indeed, some of the paddocks didn’t have any fencing at all at the road. I presume that this is because the paddocks are only used for growing grains and that they have never, or at least don’t currently, hold stock.

Devil’s Peak, Quorn.

2025-04-09T11:35:00Z

I’m in Quorn today so this morning I walked (and scrambled) up to the top of the Devil’s Peak, then in the afternoon I walked around the town’s Heritage Trail. According to my photo archive it was as long ago as 2017 that I was last here.

Quorn sits at 300m above sea level, the Devil’s Peak reaches 700m. So if your arithmetic is as good as mine, that’s a 400 metres climb in altitude. That’s not as much as climbing out of the gorges around Armidale, but it turned out to required some moderate climbing skills given the solid rock and boulders at the top.

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Devil’s Peak, Quorn.

The view from the top of the Devil’s Peak was certainly impressive given that there was no scrub or trees to impede the, albeit hazy, view.

Southern Flinders Ranges from atop the Devil’s Peak, Quorn.

Heading further north into the Flinders Ranges

2025-04-08T10:25:35Z

Today’s journey took me from Port Pirie, to Port Germein, to Booleroo Centre, to Quorn. Not a long day, only about 300 km which I took slowly to take in the scenery.

Much of southern South Australia is in a prolonged severe drought. The land is very dry and dusty. The soil has no fibre to hold it together and thus the slightest wind will generate dust storms. I’m told that grain producers are dry seeding their paddocks - that is to say they are sewing seed into the bone-dry ground in the hope that winter rainfall will arrive to add moisture.

The morning saw me visiting part of the harbour at Port Pirie.

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Port Pirie.

Then onto Port Germein further up the east coast of the Spencer Gulf. The wooden jetty there is about 1.4 km in length. Its first incarnation was in the late 19th century, built to cart grains to waiting sailing ships to export to Europe.

Port Germein.

Along the way I stopped at Booleroo Centre, a small town which these days services agricultural interests. Its population is in the low hundreds.

Booleroo Centre.

Then on to my destination for the day, Quorn.

The Spencer Gulf at Wallaroo

2025-04-07T08:42:13Z

On a day trip from Port Pirie I stopped off at Wallaroo which is about midway along the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia. Early in its life Wallaroo was a major copper smelting town. These days its mainstay is as a collection point for grains which are then loaded onto ships for transport elsewhere.

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The Jetty at Wallaroo, South Australia.

Pottering along at Renmark

2025-04-06T07:44:02Z

The Murray River features once again, this time in Renmark. I had a walk along the river and saw a handful of river craft plying there. This photograph is of a houseboat slowly making its way upstream.

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Houseboating.

The road less travelled

2025-04-04T23:09:46Z

Why take a main road when there’s a lesser used “backroad” to take? This photograph shows part of Old Mail Road I took between Mildura and Renmark. It follows the south bank of the Murray River.

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Old Mail Road between Mildura and Renmark (South Australia)

A small section of the road from the map.

Mildura - Lock 11 on the Murray River

2025-04-04T06:59:00Z

The Murray River has a series of 13 weirs deigned to hold back water to both raise the river’s level (and thus hold more water) and for irrigation purposes in places. To permit the passage of boats there are a series of locks that bypass the weirs and are designed to lower water levels to permit boats to traverse the river.

My morning walk this morning took me to Lock 11 at Mildura. This lock was completed in 1927 and has been in use since then. Up until 1970 the gates were manually operated. This photograph illustrates the difference in river heights on each side of the gates.

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Lock 11 on the Murray River at Mildura.

Mildura - a bustling town

2025-04-03T06:19:42Z

Wikipedia gives Mildura’s population as being around 35,000 in 2021 with a combined population in the urban area of around 59,000. My initial impression of the central parts of town was that it was much larger. Many, many retails outlets, businesses, cafés, restaurants, and bars.

I walked about 13 km around town today with the longest walk along Deakin Avenue. It’s an impressive busy, wide, dual carriageway with a mix of residences, small businesses (accountants, health-related, etc.), schools and churches.

The churches were the most interesting from an architectural perspective. Those with traditional church “shapes” with spires, and those not so traditional from a western tradition.

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St. Margarets Anglican Church.

Annunciation of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church.

St. Andrews Uniting Church.

The former Methodist Church (now privately owned).

Wentworth - Where the rivers meet

2025-04-02T09:34:18Z

Wentworth is a small town in southern New South Wales near the border with Victoria. It sits at the confluence of two of Australia’s major rivers, the Darling, and the Murray. Wentworth was once a major river port but that faded out with the coming of railways.

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The confluence - the Darling to the left, the Murray to the right.

An old paddle steamer in a side channel of the Darling.

Superfluous church buildings

2025-03-31T08:39:32Z

As is the case pretty much everywhere these days, there are now many churches which are now no longer serving their original purpose due to falling congregation numbers. I don’t know what percentage of those once well attended churches have now fallen into disuse but if somebody told me it was 50% I wouldn’t be surprised.

Broken Hill certainly has its share of former churches that have been converted into homes, into arts galleries, child-care facilities, or just sit unused and falling into ruin.

This photograph is of the Thomas Street Uniting Church.

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The Thomas Street Uniting Church, Broken Hill.

A hint of what used to be

2025-03-30T03:32:38Z

Time stands still.

G. Blom’s Town and Country Store from the late 19th, early 20th century still standing in Argent Street, Broken Hill.

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How many businesses has this building hosted?

George Blom was a grocer in Broken Hill though the name “Town & Country Store” may imply that other goods were sold there too.

Miners’ memorial

2025-03-28T08:55:46Z

In the late 19th and early to mid 20th centuries mining was an incredibly dangerous occupation, much more so than today. Over 800 miners have died in Broken Hill mines to date. Their names, death of death, and cause of death are marked in this memorial atop the Line of Lode - the remnants of the Broken Hill itself.

The greatest cause of death and injury was that of falling rock.

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The miners’ memorial - each name recorded.

Iodide Street Row Cottages

2025-03-27T08:53:50Z

I passed this row of 1890s miners’ cottages many times over the years I’ve visited Broken Hill and lamented the disrepair and decline of these historic cottages.

It was a surprise, therefore, to discover that they are in the process of being renovated. I currently have no idea what the intention of such renovation is.

Here’s a photograph of what they looked like a few years ago.

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Image of the Row of Cottages from a few years ago.

Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/basalamant/53652094694/

And here’s a photograph I took this morning with renovations well under way.

Renovations in progress.

Broken Hill Cemetery

2025-03-26T07:24:35Z

I usually visit local cemeteries on my travels. My interest coincides with researching family histories (being the history of families originally in my home area), or researching the history of the areas I visit and their inhabitants.

Today I went on my customary ramble around the Broken Hill Cemetery to say hello to a few of the residents that I have previously researched. Gone, but not forgotten (by me).

The population of Broken Hill is well down from that of its heyday when mining was a strong local industry. The town population is around 17,000. The Cemetery’s population is a little under 45,000 internments across approximately 100 acres.

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A view of a small part of the Broken Hill Cemtery.

Mt. Grenfell National Park, near Cobar.

2025-03-25T06:35:55Z

I’m travelling around New South Wales and adjacent states for the next few months. It’s partly a bushwalking tour, and partly just travelling country I’ve not seen before, or not seen for a few decades.

My journey started with me heading west from Armidale to Cobar, a 700 km (440 mile) trip.

My first walk was at the Mt. Grenfell Historic Site within Mt. Grenfell National Park. The park itself is about 70 km (43 miles) north-west of Cobar. The Historic Site is an aboriginal art site, with a 5 km loop walking up and around Mt. Grenfell.

https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/mount-grenfell-historic-site

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Aboriginal art at one of the Mt. Grenfell art sites.

The view from near the top of Mt. Grenfell.