Wallabies, Rocks and Copper

It has been a fascinating day touring the Flinders National Park, in the company of our Rawnsley Guide Phil and a couple of other Poms from Reading, Ian and Sue. The geology here in the Wilpena Pound area is quite incredible and right up my alley. I won't bore you with too many details, but the rocks here are some of the oldest on the planet and their age and strata perfectly delineated in Brachina Gorge, which is a geological corridor through time. There are the very earliest fossils known to man in the rocks here. They are some 370 million years old, not that you would recognise them as they appear as spots in the rock the size of a 10 pence coin. You definitely need to have your eye in! This is a favourite haunt of David Attenborough, who has visited many times, both privately and professionally. To our delight we saw some rock wallabies half way up the Gorge rock face. They were resting in small caves away from the heat. One was as interested in us as we were in him, staring down with apparent fascination. Two others bounded up the cliff face as if it were nothing. Like all the animals here, Kangaroos and Emus also, they are extremely well camouflaged and you have to look hard to pick them out. The 4WD bounced up and down through the park and we viewed animals, birds, vistas and vegetation. including a tree called Xanthorea, or in Aboriginal speak 'black boy' or the more common name of Yakka. It is over 300 years old and everything from it is used to great effect by the Aboriginals, even the sap as a boiled sweet and as it hardens glue! For cricket fans, this is where the Simon Hughes Book title 'A Lot of Hard Yakka' originates. The famous Australian 'long drop dunnie' was tried out and pronounced not as bad as expected!
We arrived at Blinman for lunch. It is a tiny Outback hamlet that rejoices in the princely sum of 17 inhabitants. It is the quintessential one horse town, but has an unexpected history. The only pub/hotel provided a welcome cold drink and lunch. Peter asked the obvious question 'How does it keep going with so few people?' We are visiting at the very end of the Tourist season up here. A lot of places close down for the summer when temperatures can soar to 50 degrees. Only the Europeans come then, to escape the cold winter at home. Most Aussies hunker down in the air conditioning, as bush camping (a great favourite here) would be impossible even for them. Imagine sleeping in a tent in such conditions! For nine months of the year the place is apparently heaving and they survive for the rest of the year on that. Blinman, in common with several towns in this area, are outside the jurisdiction of any local council. They pay no rates, local taxes etc, but of course they have no services, such as electricity, water, refuse, lighting and survive by cooperation and their own wits.
In the 1850s a one legged shepherd called 'Peg Leg' ( could only be Australian speak) sat watching his flock just out of the town. He looked down and realised that he was gazing at a copper deposit. To buy the lease on the land was £10, far more than he could afford. He managed to persuade 3 others to join him and they purchased the land and sat on it. Seven years later they sold to a mining company for £7000, a fortune in 1800s. The depth of the deposit was realised and tin miners from Cornwall were imported. A nine month journey by sea, followed by a two month overland trek to Blinman and here at last were the sought after miners and their families deep in the Flinders Rangers. A situation more different to Cornwall could not be imagined. We were taken on a tour of the mine as it stands at the moment, by Sherri, one of the inhabitants who has been instrumental in the restoration of the 1860s mine. The amount of work involved here is astronomical and the money raised by 17 people similar. Sherri painted a lucid and gripping picture of the life of an 1860s hard rock miner. It was humbling and a testament to man's ingenuity and determination. The conditions were appalling and few men survived beyond 40 years of age. If an accident didn't get them, then silicosis did. I will try never to complain again. Yes, I know highly unlikely, but in the event Blinman will come to mind, both past and present.
It has been a day to remember.Read more