Wheat from horizon to horizon, sheep on rich, green, improved pasture, green bushland and even tinges of green are visible on the harshest parts of the Nullarbor. The country is in the best condition for decades and all this at a time when wheat prices are at historical highs and sheep and lamb importers in the Middle East are prepared to pay almost anything for Australian sheep products.
It’s hard to understand why so many Australians are so negative about this country’s future. We have seen enormous mining concerns in Queensland (coal) and WA (Iron Ore). There are gas projects worth tens of billions of dollars underway and hundreds of smaller mining operations. Banks and Telcos continue to announce multi-billion dollar profits. Unemployment is less than 6%. The national debt is so small in comparison to other developed countries it’s laughable!
Getting out and about as we are doing really opens one’s eyes to just how blessed this country is.
Our crossing of the Nullarbor has been very different to what we expected. Much of the eastern part of what is normally considered as ‘the Nullarbor’, is reasonable grazing land and marginal wheat country. The actual treeless plain itself is very small in comparison to the total distance from Norseman to Ceduna - the popular start and end points of the plain.
The coastline is simply spectacular! We took a short detour to the ‘Head of Bight”, a bay at the most northerly part of the Bight. This is aboriginal land and the local community has established a thriving tourist attraction where whales and some of the most dramatic of the costal landscapes can be viewed. The day we visited there were dozens of whales in the bay, many with young calves in tow.
The small settlement of Streaky Bay, where we are camped tonight, is in the midst of a significant fishing and aqua-culture area. Near by, Smoky Bay is a major suppler of oysters to Australia and the world. We are camped right beside the bay and although the day has been mostly steely grey, the sun broke through late in the afternoon and the temperature climbed to the mid teens, but we do have some Smoky Bay oysters to cheer us.
14 August - Coffin Bay National Park
Some of the most interesting things we come across while travelling happen purely by chance. Yesterday, on our way down the Eyre Peninsula, we spotted a small old country cemetery perched on top of a lonely hill just off the highway. Cemeteries are always interesting, often providing glimpses into local history. Our first surprise was that the avenue of young olive trees leading up to the cemetery was planted as a memorial to Georgios Tramountanas, one of the first Greeks to settle in South Australia. A fine new memorial tomb stone marked George’s grave. Georgios changed his name to George North when he settled in the small settlement of Colton, the once-thriving local rural community.
Equally interesting were the large number of graves of the Kenny clan. At least four generations were represented, accounting for the vast majority of the graves in the cemetery, Later in the day we had web access and spent some time researching the history of Colton and the Kennys and Norths (Tramountanas).
The Colton area was surveyed, subdivided and proclaimed on 22 June 1876. It was named after Sir John Colton, MP who was born in 1823 in England and came to South Australia with his parents in 1839. Soon after the District was opened for agriculture, Michael Kenny, born 1808, at Six Mile Bridge, County Clare. Ireland, arrived in the colony in 1842. He later took up a large parcel of land at Colton with his sons, in September 1876.
Michael's second son, born in 1852 at Morphett Vale, built Colton’s first wine shop and, later, the Colton Hotel, which was opened in 1885. On seeing this, we recalled a relatively large area of ruins a kilometre or so west of the cemetery at a road junction. The old Colton Pub?
Nothing remains of Colton today, except a nice stone Anglican Church.
We couldn’t help but wonder how it must have been for Georgios, living in a community so dominated by an ‘Irish Clan’. Perhaps it was easier for Costa, our Greek Cypriot brother in-law??
Coffin Bay was to be a fishing expedition. No such luck! A major cold front with gale force winds and pelting rain settled in for our visit. We amused ourselves with a drive around the National Park, rather than our usual long treks. The wind was so strong it almost ripped the doors off the car when we alighted for quick lookout visits. As the wind howled around us at Avoid Point, we couldn’t help wondering whether Mathew Flinders had happened upon this area on a similar day and simply made a note on his chart as a warning to fellow navigators… “Avoid Point!” and the name stuck? While on the subject of place names, Coffin Bay has no sinister origin. It was named after Sir Isaac Coffin, who oversaw the fitting out of Flinders’ ship, the Navigator. Whether or not there were sinister overtones associated with good Isaac’s name we are unsure?
We also kept ourselves amused, or were amused by, a pair of Blue Wrens that adopted us, popping into our van for a look about in between sorties to attack their reflections in the car’s windscreen. The cock bird was particularly frantic, starting at the top of the glass and sliding all the way down, still pecking furiously at his ‘rival’. So tame were they that we had to be careful where we walked as they were constantly under foot.
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