EDUCATIONAL and CULTURAL TOURS

223 Angas Street, Adelaide SA 5000 Tel (08) 8223 1979 ● Email tours@wea-sa.com.au

ATAS A11046

E&OE

PHOTOGRAPHS: Denis Binnion; Shutterstock; Lawrence Murray; James St John; Dreadpiratestar; Robyn Jay; Luke Anderson; Chris Fithall

Day 5 Friday 02 October Day 6 Saturday 03 October

Leigh Creek to Aroona & Iga Warta This morning you drive out to Aroona dam and stop to take photos at the great railway bridge. The dam is a reservoir built to provide water for the town in 1952. The natural hills and rocks around the dam have lovely red and purple hues and this picturesque setting is currently being considered for recreational use as Leigh Creek’s water supply now comes from an artesian source which is treated and filtered. After morning tea you drive to Nepabunna where Adnyamathanha inhabited a permanent water hole. After conflict with Balcanoona station man-agement however they were moved to an inferior water hole they called Nepabun-na, meaning shallow water hole. A mis-sion was established in 1931 and alt-hough many Adnyamathanha chose to stay on their land they felt disempowered and old traditions lapsed. In 1977 the government handed back control to the traditional owners who understand that teaching others about their culture and sacred sites increases appreciation and enjoyment of the Flinders Ranges whilst also preserving and recording their cul-ture. You visit Iga Warta where you have an informative tour with an Adnya-mathanha guide to learn about local plants and their role in traditional food and medicine. Lunch is also included before returning to Leigh Creek for some relaxation before dinner. Overnight Leigh Creek Breakfast ● Lunch ● Dinner

Leigh Creek to Adelaide. Today you travel south via Parachilna and Hawker stopping briefly at the histor-ic site of Wilson to see the ruins and cemetery before arriving at Kanyaka. This is the largest and best preserved reminder of early European settlement in the region with its ruined station home-stead, overseer’s house, men’s kitchen and dining room, carpenter’s shop, sta-bles, shearer’s quarters and blacksmith shop. All were left to crumble when leaseholder John Phillips abandoned the once prosperous holding after crippling drought. Lunch is taken in beautiful his-toric Quorn. There are several quaint cafes and tea shops here serving hearty lunches and cream teas with native Quon-dongs as a feature. Quorn thrived as it became the first terminus on the Great Northern railway from Port Augusta and later the junction for the railway line west to Perth and north to Oodnadatta and Alice Springs. The charming Dutch ga-bled Railway Station was built in 1916. After the new standard gauge line to Ma-ree and Leigh Creek was built, Quorn declined and the magnificent hotels on the main street built to service rail pas-sengers became a movie set for several films including The Sundowners, Sunday Too Far Away, The Shiralee and Gallipo-li. In the afternoon you travel via Wil-mington, Melrose, Laura and Port Wake-field back to Adelaide arriving at the WEA Centre around dinner time. Breakfast

....enriching lives through cultural exchange

6 Days $1740 Twin Share Single Supplement $275 Balance Due 26 August 2020

Orroroo ● Yourambulla Aboriginal Paintings ● Hawker ● Ikara Flinders

Ranges National Park ● Wilpena ● Blinman ● Parachilna Gorge ● Beltana

Leigh Creek ● Marree ● Farina ● Aroona Dam ● Iga Warta ● Kanyaka ● Quorn

T he time is perfect to explore the breathtaking ancient landscapes of the Flinders Ranges. Right on our doorstep, this enchanting natural and cultural

wonderland is pristine, accessible and exhilarating. Witness the determina-tion, optimism and heartbreak of early European settler heritage and empow-ering local Indigenous cultures with your historian tour leader from the com-

fort of your all terrain touring coach. Be delighted by the unique hues of the land. Burnt orange and semi- arid deserts, mountain ranges of purple, blue

and mauve and bright spring wildflowers all bask beneath a vast and azure outback sky. Enjoy the comforts of daily cooked breakfasts, hearty evening

dinners, morning and afternoon teas and a lunch with Adnyamathanha tradi-tion owners at Iga Warta. Travel beyond the beaten track, appreciate friendly outback hospitality and be inspired by the grandeur of nature and its capaci-

ty to ground us all, on this well designed tour.

Tour Leader: Dr Denis Binnion AM is an experienced historical tour leader for both WEA day tours and WEA Travel’s extended heritage tours to all corners of Australia. With a keen interest in geography, local heritage and history, he is a dedicated and friendly leader. Tour Includes: Full escort; All motel accommodation for 5 nights; 5 break-fasts; 5 dinners with choices; 1 lunch; Morning and afternoon teas; All transportation, tours & sightseeing as per itinerary; Comprehensive tour notes and quizzes.

Day 1 Monday 28 September

Adelaide to Hawker. Depart the WEA Centre on your all ter-rain touring coach this morning and enjoy the beautiful vineyards and landscapes of the Clare Valley before stopping for lunch in Orroroo a progressive and welcoming outback town. This afternoon you stop at the historic site of Craddock where during the early 1880s two hotels, a school and a Catholic church were built. A general store, post office and two blacksmiths followed. Being one hundred kilometres north of Goyder’s Line however rainfall was poor and by the end of the 1890s most settlers had left the district. Continue to the Yourambulla Aboriginal Reserve where there are rock carvings from the traditional owners of the Flinders Ranges, the Adnyamathanha people. The climb to the carvings is inaccessible but your tour leader will provide information about the 600 year old site. You then check in to your accommodation in the friendly Flin-ders Ranges hub of Hawker in the late afternoon. Many fine stone buildings from the 1800s can be seen here as Hawk-er flourished as a railway town with up to 900 residents in its heyday. It serviced the

vast pastoral stations in the region, the mining town of Blinman and the Adelaide Milling Company flour mill which was built here in 1884. Today there are 250 residents in this laid back outback centre. Overnight Hawker Dinner

Day 2 Tuesday 29 September

Hawker to Wilpena & Blinman Take a breathtaking scenic tour through the heart of Ikara Flinders Ranges Na-tional Park today which includes the unique spectacle of Wilpena Pound.

Day 3 Wednesday 30 September

Day 4 Thursday 01 October

There are opportunities to stop and photo-graph along the way and time for morning tea and a nice walk amongst the majestic River Red Gums along the Pound trail. The Pound itself is a gigantic naturally formed amphitheatre created by an ancient moun-tain range millions of years ago when the sea floor uplifted and subsequently eroded. The highest peak is St Mary’s at 1,171. The Adnyamathanha had inhabited the area for over 15,000 years before the first European settled in 1851, delighted to have found a perfectly enclosed ring of flat grazing land with a permanent running spring. It was given the local Aboriginal name Wilpena. You are likely to see kangaroos, emus and brilliantly hued parrots. Continue on to historic Blinman, the oldest settlement in the Flinders Ranges, where there is time for lunch and to see some historic buildings. There is a heritage listed mine manager’s house and a miner’s dug out, a stone police station, memorial hall and historic ceme-tery. In the late afternoon you return to Hawker and drive to the look out just out of town to see the sun set over the vast and enchanting landscape. Overnight Hawker Breakfast ● Dinner

Hawker to Leigh Creek. Depart Hawker this morning for a scenic drive to Leigh Creek. Sights to explore along the way include Wonoka historic site and cemetery, beautiful Parachilna Gorge and Angorichina. There are photo stops along the way and your lunch stop is at the Prairie Hotel which is noted for its feral food menu and ancient Ediacaran fossil display (subject to the hotel’s sched-uled reopening in August 2020). In the afternoon you drive to Beltana historic settlement. With many watercourses com-ing down from Lake Torrens, the country around Beltana was considered good pas-toral land and the first station was named Beltana from the local Aboriginal word for running waters. In 1862 Robert Barr Smith and Thomas Elder took over the run. It was chosen as a site for a repeater station for the Overland Telegraph in 1871 and the station was used as a work camp and source of camels for the line’s construc-tion, leading to the opening of the Victoria Hotel in 1874. Elder employed Afghans to breed camels to transport wool across the harsh landscape having shipped 109 cam-els from the Middle East to South Austral-ia in 1865. A post office, two hotels, a bakery, blacksmith and saddlery, several general stores, a school and a police sta-tion had opened by the 1890s. The railway also reached Beltana but when passenger services ceased in 1980 it became a ghost town. You arrive at the Leigh Creek Re-sort in the late afternoon. Coal mining began here in 1944 but it was not until 1982 that families moved into the town and a school, hospital, community centre and sporting facilities such as a swimming pool were built and thousands of trees were planted. The mine closed in 2015 and leigh Creek now survives as an outback tourist centre. Overnight Leigh Creek Breakfast ● Dinner

Leigh Creek to Marree & Farina Depart Leigh Creek after breakfast to Lyndhurst and then Maree where there is time to explore this remote outpost and have lunch. Lyndhurst is situated at the southern end of the Strzelecki Track from the Queensland border. The arid desert Aboriginal lands around Maree were first sighted by Europeans Edward John Eyre and his exploration party in 1840. Beneath the ground are deep artesian waters with thousands of springs. Maree was first named Herrgott Springs after John McDougall Stuart’s botanist. The Great Northern Railway reached Hergott Springs by 1884 and then came a hotel and general store. The locals referred to the town as Maree but during World War One the Ger-man sounding Hergott Springs was offi-cially changed to Maree in line with previ-ous local usage. From Maree wool and supplies went up and down to Birdsville by camel train after a government survey in 1891 to assess the viability of a railway line up the Birdsville Track did not pro-gress. By 1900 many Afghan cameleers were based here with about 1500 camels. A replica mosque now commemorates their role in opening up outback Australia and there are still many Afghan names around the town. Since the railway’s clo-sure in 1980 tourism keeps the town going. After lunch you continue to the historic site of Farina. This town boomed with two general stores and hotels, saddlers, black-smiths and an underground bakery. Doz-ens of camel trains lined the streets and the population rose to 300 by 1886. By the 1930s prolonged drought and over grazing saw the dunes slowly bury the town in sand and by the 1960s most services were closed and it eventually became a ghost town. In 2009 volunteers began restoring the remaining stone buildings and Farina now has a role in South Australia’s out-back history record. Return to Leigh Creek in the late afternoon via Copley. Overnight Leigh Creek Breakfast ● Dinner