Northern Territory here we come

Booleroo Centre was named because it was in the middle of Booleroo 'hundred', (shire), south of Booleroo North, and north of Booleroo South. Unfortunately, this was all on paper and in reality neither of those two towns existed. There is only the one town, Booleroo Centre. Now commonly referred to by locals as just Booleroo.

Our tourist guide book said that the Steam and Traction Preservation Society in Booleroo (Centre) held a Steam and Traction Rally on the last Sunday in March, that was last weekend, but we thought that there might be a few machines on display outside the museum. We pulled into an almost deserted town and spotting 4 guys standing outside the pub, asked them where the museum was. They told us to do a U-turn and then turn left, up the hill and it's on the right. We had to go a little way along the road to find a gap in the median strip to do the u-turn, (near this art work),

as we did so Michael spotted an old car on a trailer. 'That's a steam car' he said, and a rare one too. (Turned out to be a White Steam Car). The owner was just about to get into the car so Michael ran over for a chat – what a surprise… he's on his way up to the museum for the open day on Sunday.

Because of Easter, the Open Day is this weekend!

We had heard that camping was allowed around the oval so we drove on up there.

There was a caravan parked at the side of the oval and lots of others at the back of the sports club. We pulled up alongside the caravan, chatted to the owners and found out that the open day was indeed tomorrow and that we could stay free of charge.

They came from WA, from Jurien Bay in fact; what a small world.

We were just walking back from checking out the facilities when I heard a ruckus from behind the van – it sounded vaguely familiar and then I saw about 6 Apostle birds strutting around the grass. They were joined by about 8 more. I was delighted, I love these birds. They remind me of the huge bird (?Hippogriff) in Harry Potter, but obviously much smaller.

 We watched a few tractors being driven out of the museum for display on the oval and then we settled in and even managed to get excellent tv reception – delights all round.

We had an extra hour's sleep that night because daylight saving ended in SA. Which meant that we were up at 7 am,which last week would have been 8 am.

As with a lot of vintage car/machinery shows there was a swap-meet to start the day. We wandered over at 8.30 but couldn't find anything to spend even $1 on. Then Michael walked up to the entry gate to pay our entry fee and we had a wander around the museum sheds.

 After coffee back in the van we made our way over to the paddock where they were demonstrating the development of the plough. Michael was frustrated by the complete lack of any coherent organisation, I thought it was one of the funniest events we've been to.

Tractors and ploughs starting up and then the 'organiser' calling them to stop and getting another tractor to hitch up to a plough and drive around the paddock first. It was meant to be in chronological order but finally after a modern huge D6 Caterpillar we got to see the earliest plough there, pulled back and forth between two steam traction engines. 

                             

After all that excitement it was lunch time.

After lunch there was the grand parade of tractors – this was not any better organised. The tractors took off for a lap of the oval once they were started. This took a while because they had to be heated, worked on, 'whatever'. Once started they just drove off, no order at all.

In the hot afternoon sun I admit to not finding this as amusing as the morning show. 2 hours after the tractors started, the few vintage cars present did their Grand Parade. That didn't take long at all, we bought ourselves an ice cream and called it a day. The rest of the afternoon we sat in the shade by the van and as the sun set listened to the tractors being driven back into the museum sheds. Gradually other campers headed off home but we stayed on for another night.

The next morning we were back on the road, down to Murray Town where we checked out their camping options. It would have cost us $15 to stay there so we were even more pleased with that whim to check out Booleroo. From Murray Town we headed out to the 'coast' of Spencer Gulf, travelling through Germein Gorge. It was a very twisting, road with lots of dips but the scenery was magnificent, a beautiful drive. 

We drove into Port Germein, a very, very quiet place. We had a photo stop and drove on up to Port Augusta. In Port Augusta we did the 'housework', (emptying tanks and filling up with water) then off to the supermarket for food. We had lunch in the van sitting in the Wharfside Plaza car park, actually a very pretty spot.

After lunch it was time to start the next major section of the trip – heading north up the Stuart Highway to ultimately reach Darwin.

We stopped for the night at the same place that we stayed on our last trip through the area.

By 2.45pm we were settled in. It was right next to the railway but The Ghan did not pass by, just a goods train late at night. No other campers joined us and we slept well.

We were on the road heading north by 9.00am. We drove up to Pimba and turned right into Woomera where we stopped for morning tea.

Michael loves newspapers and misses reading the news each day so went into the shop in Woomera for his daily fix. The price of the newspaper is $2.70 (with some country areas charging extra for freight), in Woomera he paid $2.20. The reason being that the computer had not been updated at the last price increase, and when scanned the price came up at $2.20. he offered $2.70 but was told “No, I have to charge you what the computer says.”

From Woomera we continued on to Andamooka. For no other reason than it was there, at the end of the road and we hadn't been there before.

It was hot in Andamooka, 36 degrees, and there was no shade in town. It's an opal mining town, but unlike Coober Pedy the townsfolk do not live underground. The town is full of 'shanties' alongside more permanent houses, but the piles of spoil are everywhere. 

We pulled into the camp ground – absolutely no shade available, had a quick lunch and headed back down the road to Roxby Downs.

Roxby Downs is another mining town, established for the employees of Olympic Dam where they mine Uranium. It's a little oasis and the caravan park was huge. We checked in and decided to splash out and get a powered site so that we could sit inside with the a/c on.

The park was extremely quiet, the receptionist explaining that the park really does rely on the ups and downs of BHP mining company share price. At the moment there's a slump so they have lots of empty cabins.

We enjoyed the quiet and just relaxed.

The next morning we were on the road back to Woomera before continuing north.

On the outskirts of Woomera we passed the Woomera Cemetery and remembered that Len Beadell is buried there. We pulled up and went in. There was a very attractive rock in a prominent position, yes it was Len's grave and his beloved wife Anne is buried with him.

The cemetery is a small one so we walked along looking at the other graves. The first 6 graves were all for babies. Then there were more for other babies and children who died before they were two. We walked along the rows in silence, both feeling incredibly sad. Why so many stillborns, babies no more than one or two days old or toddlers less than two years? We didn't want to continue but felt that we owed it to all of these children to visit every grave. We were in a very sombre mood when we got back into the van to drive on.

(I later 'googled' children's graves in Woomera cemetery and found that…. Of the 120 graves in the cemetery 68 are of children. The official line is that they died due to a heatwave one summer when it reached 51.6 degrees but there are many unanswered questions with the parents never seeing their child's death certificate. These certificates are held in the National Archives in Canberra. There is a class action under way, to learn the truth but it's all still covered by the official secrets act. After all this time, I wonder how many parents are still alive and if they will ever learn the truth.)

I intend to follow this case, as those 68 graves still make me feel sad.

We like to think that Len and his wife Anne are looking after all of those little ones.

I can't leave this posting on a sad note so to continue the journey – we stopped at a spot looking out over the huge salt lake, Lake Hart, for lunch and then drove, heading on to Coober Pedy for the night. 

Our first two camping options were about 2kms out of town so we opted for the same caravan park as last time – The Opal Inn. It's very central and we were still in their computer system from last time. They even had free wifi throughout the park. Coober Pedy is busier than it was before, obviously the opal mines are thriving.

We enjoyed another glorious outback sunset.

We contacted Michael's cousin in Alice Springs to check out when she was expecting us, whether is would be best to arrive before or after the weekend. The answer would decide whether we had another night here in Coober Pedy.

The answer was – 'come tomorrow'. But that drive was just a bit too far in one day so we headed north the next morning stopping in the mid afternoon in a roadside rest area at Agnes Creek. A beautiful spot set back off the highway so the traffic didn't disturb us.

The next morning we continued on into 'A Town like Alice', actually it wasn't like Alice………….. it WAS Alice Springs.