You could quite easily spend a few weeks exploring the Flinders Ranges and surrounding areas, particularly if you are going to do any of the bushwalks.
Below are just a few of the places we visited while in the area.
The Great Wall of China
Just outside the Flinders Ranges on the road between Wilpena and Blinman you’ll find the unusual formation which is named the Great Wall of China. This is made up of lines of rocks which are topped with ironstone.
Blinman
The historic town of Blinman is actually the highest town in South Australia. Copper was discovered here in 1859 and mining began soon afterwards. What was once a popular busy town in the mining boom is now a quiet little town home to just 22 residents.
The Blinman Hotel, known as ‘The Pub in the Scrub’, first opened in 1869.
Sacred Canyon
The site is a place where the Adnyamanthanha people gathered to tell stories. It’s believed that the engravings are up to 40 thousand years old.
It’s quite an easy and picturesque walk into the canyon along a dry river bed, lined with ancient river red gums. What makes this place different to other Aboriginal artworks is that they are actually engravings carved into the rocks, not paintings.
It is unknown who actually made these artworks as the memory of these people has been lost to the local Adnyamanthanha community.
Nuccaleena Mine Ruins
Copper was discovered at Nuccaleena by William Finke in the mid 1850’s. The mine became partly operational in early 1860 when 100 tons of copper ore were mined in 5 weeks by 16 men. By March 1861, 88 men were working at Nuccaleena, including six miners, five masons, four sawyers, two cooks and a medical officer.
The Great Northern Mining Company built a small town around the mine site, where the miners and mechanics of the company resided. Of course, the township also had the Bushman’s Hotel, as well as Captains apartments, office, stone stables, a goods store, smith’s shop, a workshop, general store, doctor’s house and huts for the miners.
You can walk around this old mine site and we would have loved to have done so, but it was unbelievably hot the day we were there and walking from the car to the information sign and taking the photos below nearly killed me (George stayed in the comfort of the air-conditioned car!)
Kanyaka Homestead Ruins
We both love exploring old ruins, learning the history and imagining what these places must have been like …. filled with people and chatter. Walking around some of these ruins we come across, you are the only ones there and it’s hard to imagine what life must had been like.
The Kanyaka ruins consists of various buildings, the main homestead and various other outbuildings. There is also the woolshed, which was one of the largest in the state.
This was our second visit to these ruins and this time we also noticed that there is a small cemetery across the creek bed …. we all know Shelly loves a cemetery and had it not been over 43 degrees she would have taken the walk over to check it out!
Old Moxans’ Hut
You will find this hut on the SkyTrek Track on Willow Spring Station property. Old Moxans’ Hut was built around the turn of the century and was actually occupied permanently by a station employee until the early 1960’s.
Prairie Hotel
Located at Parachilna, the Prairie Hotel is one of those places that everyone wants to visit, why? To try their ‘FMG’ – Feral Mixed Grill ….. a dish consisting of kangaroo, camel and emu. Apparently this is listed as one of the top 100 Gourmet experiences in Australia! We would have liked to try this (well George would have), but the hotel was closed for the summer so we will have to visit next time, but we did take a drive out to the town anyway.
The Parachilna Hotel was first licensed in 1876 and changed its name to the Prairie Hotel when Ross and Jane Fargher purchased the hotel in 1991.
Now Parachilna is one of those blink and you’ll miss it type of places …. it’s literally nothing more than a railway station, the hotel and a few other buildings. It’s a strange little place, there was no one around (that we could see!) and to be honest it felt pretty eerie. Would we stay there ….. NO, would we go back when the pub is open …. Probably, did we feel like someone was going to jump out and kidnap us and chop us up into a million pieces …. YES!
Friendly locals!
This friendly little guy was a constant visitor at our campsite during our stay. He was very inquisitive and was never far away. We are always very careful about not leaving food or rubbish around while we are camping, but we did come back one day and find the grease tray from our Webber lying on the floor ….. we have a feeling maybe this little guy had something to do with that!
Plenty of 4WD Tracks
As previously posted, there are plenty of 4WD tracks available and the Flinders Ranges are centrally located should you wish to extended your holiday into another area …. there was a part of us that wanted to jump on the Strzelecki Track and head off to Innamincka for another visit ….. the hotel sells awesome chips!
Wilpena Pound Welcome Talk
One of the highlights of the trip was attending the welcome talk at the resort. Each night they hold a free informal talk where you are welcomed to the area in Yura Ngawarla, the language of the Adnyamathanha people, the traditional owners of Wilpena Pound and the Flinders Ranges area. The talk included the welcome, as well as stories and beliefs of the Adnyamathanha people as to the creation of the pound and surrounding areas. To hear of stories passed down from generation to generation and to feel their passion and spiritual connection is something we love to be a part of. To visit places like this and see that many of the staff are of Aboriginal background makes it just feel right. We love hearing the Dreamtime stories, knowing that they have carried these beliefs down the generations, it’s a privilege to be a part of that. If you are visiting the Wilpena Pound Resort, this welcome talk is a must-do activity.
We basically spent 5 days driving around and exploring. We generally left camp by 8am and we were lucky to be back before 7pm most days. During our whole trip we drove 5,136km. Above is a screenshot of our hema map app of where we drove in the Flinders Ranges.
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