Our camping area by the highway last night was the most crowded we have experienced to date. We were just able to squeeze in between a van and a camper with inches to spare. Ridiculous when you consider how much space is available in the great nothingness that is the Northern Territory! Campers are generally good about keeping to the designated areas to bush camp, but if their numbers keep growing as they are, it won’t be too long before the mostly mild -mannered grey nomads break out and the hundreds of nice spots just off the highways all over remote and rural Australia are just taken over by frustrated campers.
Old Newcastle Waters is just off the highway, north of our camp site. It’s a rusting, corrugated iron ghost town today. The ruins of the old pub and shop are much as they were when the businesses closed up 30-40 years ago.
Further up the road, at Daly Waters, the pub still operates, drawing in the tourists. But, for us, the real thrill was the deserted WWII Airfield just outside town. We were able to drive up the deserted runway where Spitfires and B17 bombers landed in their hundreds, transiting to the front in the Pacific. Nothing has been done to the complex since its heyday. The original markings are still discernable on the runway, the bush has reclaimed some of the out buildings and pieces of wrecked planes struggle with vines and scrub. The main hanger is still intact, housing a few simple information boards about the strip’s wartime service. All this is much more interesting to explore, than the ‘restored history’ that most of these places eventually become.
Mataranka is our first caravan park since entering the NT. Time to do some washing and have a shower. While the washing was drying (which takes about 10 minutes in this sun and wind!) we headed off to the thermal springs for a swim. An oasis of cabbage tree palms greeted us, surrounding crystal clear pools of warm, 34C water. Fantastic!
Neither of us have read the book, but “We of the Never Never” was set in this area and the recreation of the original Elsey Station Homestead built for the movie is an excellent reminder of just how primitive life was in this part of the country up to the 1950s.
No comments:
Post a Comment