FLINDERS RANGES ROCKS OF AGES
Sunrise at Bunyeroo Valley in Flinders Ranges.
We South Australians are a lucky bunch. We enjoy a moderate, Mediterranean-style climate, our coastline is dotted with glorious, unspoilt beaches, our food and drink are world-class, and we know how to pronounce the word ‘pool’. And although most of us live by the sea, the wilds of an ancient mountain range are within a day’s drive. Leave the ’burbs after breakfast and arrive in the Flinders Ranges by lunchtime.
Words: John Pedler
Uplifted and twisted by mighty tectonic forces, and torn apart by countless millennia of erosion, this is a landscape that reveals the geological history of our planet. In the words of famed South Australian artist and environmentalist Hans Heysen, the Flinders displays “the bones of nature laid bare”. Although the region is remote and rugged, you can still get a decent flat white, long black or cappuccino.
This is one of the great joys of visiting the Flinders Ranges. Whether you’re a hardcore adventurer keen on trekking to remote canyons, or you prefer the air-conditioned comfort of a four-wheel-drive tour, you won’t be disappointed. When night falls, you can roll out a swag beneath the Milky Way’s dazzling light show, upgrade to a luxury safari tent, or curl up between the sheets in a quality hotel. The Flinders Ranges is accessible outback, offering travellers high adventure and soft-pillow comfort in equal measure.
Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby.
Arkaroola Ridgetop Tour.
Out and about
The sealed Flinders Ranges Way leads to Wilpena Resort, then to the old copper mining town of Blinman – the highest town in the state and home to the remote North Blinman Hotel. Beyond this, all roads in the central and northern Flinders are unsealed. Conditions range from formed gravel surfaces, to rough narrow tracks and heart-in-mouth hill-climbs among the goats – expect goats. Domestic goats of the angora and cashmere varieties were brought to the Flinders in about 1840 and have since become feral pests enjoying mountain life.
In the central ranges, travellers in vehicles with suitable ground clearance can tackle Brachina Gorge, considered ‘a corridor through time’. Tectonics and incessant weathering have ripped open rock strata to expose geological history from an age well before sure-footed wallabies made their homes among the battered landscape. The massive, gnarled red gums dotted along Brachina Creek seem almost as old as the rocks.
Return to the Flinders Ranges Way via Bunyeroo Valley – a pretty drive among native cypress pines, with lookouts offering stunning views towards the walls of Ikara/Wilpena Pound. A jewel in the crown of the central Flinders, Ikara/Wilpena Pound is a colossal natural amphitheatre surrounded by an imposing escarpment.
Inaccessible by vehicle, the only way to venture into this geological marvel is to don your walking boots and get hiking. There are several walking tracks of varying degrees of difficulty. To take in the full spectacle of the Ikara and the surrounding ranges, head for the skies on a scenic flight.
Moralana Scenic Route, between Hawker and Wilpena, is another road suitable for conventional vehicles with good clearance, weather permitting.
Passing between the outer wall of Ikara/Wilpena Pound and the colourful bluffs of the Elder Range, this picturesque trail is certainly worthy of its ‘scenic’ moniker.
Some travellers enter the northern Flinders via the gravel road running east from the Outback Highway at Copley. This region is the home of the Adnyamathanha people, who’ve set up the cultural tourism centre, Iga Warta, en route. Join a plant tour to discover the medicinal and nutritional benefits of the local flora, learn artefact-making, and visit a natural gallery of ancient rock paintings. If you’re keen to stay overnight, pull the rig into a campsite or choose from a range of cabin and tent-style accommodation.
From north to south, serious offroaders will have a blast with plenty of four-wheel-drive tracks to explore. There are several Public Access Routes (PARs) – public tracks on private property – that present challenging off-road conditions for experienced campaigners. Test your skills on the trail to the Nuccaleena Copper Mine ruin, old Artimore Homestead and Patawarta Gap. In the northern Flinders, the four-wheel-drive track to Grindells Hut in Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park offers exciting, yet not overly challenging, ups and downs. It’s a lot of fun with top-notch scenery along the way. There are also thrilling off-road tracks available at Arkaroola, as well as the guided Ridgetop Tour in an open-top four-wheel-drive.
Throughout the Flinders Ranges, there are plenty of privately owned user-pays tracks that reach secluded regions, not accessible on public roads. Take your pick, from gentle outings through delightful rural scenery, to wild scrambles up steep, shaly mountainsides. Several of these properties have camping and accommodation facilities. If you don’t have a vehicle suitable for unsealed roads, or you’d rather someone else do the driving, book a guided tour at one of the major tourist centres.
Prairie Hotel's menu offering.
A good night’s sleep
Ikara-Flinders National Park has plenty of bush camping sites with million-dollar views. Pitch a tent among whispering pines along the Bunyeroo Valley, or head for Aroona Valley, a place that greatly inspired Hans Heysen. There are also designated bush camps along Brachina Gorge and just beside the sealed road between Wilpena and Blinman. Further north, outside the national park, a four-wheel-drive track heads to a campground near pretty Chambers Gorge. Further north still, there are stunningly located campsites deep in the wilderness of Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park. For more formal camping – including fancy trappings like electricity, running water and flushing toilets – head for Quorn, Hawker, Copley, Rawnsley Park Station, Wilpena Resort, Angorichina Village, Blinman or Arkaroola.
For a unique accommodation experience, book a night or two in an Ikari Safari Tent at Wilpena Resort, which caters to those who enjoy the concept of camping but prefer their beds to be well above the dirt.
Complete with quality hotel-style fittings, an outdoor deck and occasional visiting kangaroos, this is ‘getting back to nature’ without the grit. Just down the road at Rawnsley Park Station, enjoy one of the most sensational views in the ranges. Head out on the deck of your eco-villa at sunset to experience the rich, earthen colours of Wilpena Pound’s walls as they catch the evening sun.
Prairie Hotel.
The Prairie Hotel at Parachilna, 90km north of Hawker on the sealed Route B83, offers well-appointed accommodation. Once a tiny railway siding on the line to Central Australia, Parachilna became a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ speck on the side of the road when the rail service ceased. That’s until the early 1990s, when the 1870s-era pub underwent a serious makeover and reopened with a culinary twist that’s firmly placed it on the foodie map. As well as regular restaurant fare, the Prairie Hotel’s seasonal menu is likely to include dishes such as wild boar ragu, camel sausage rolls, and roo tail in sweet and sour bush tomato sauce. The pub’s ‘feral’ menu has become iconic among travellers, who drop in for a unique dining experience and a beer from the pub’s in-house brewery.
The wide-open spaces and rugged landscapes of the Flinders Ranges are surprisingly close to the busy cities where most of us live. And although the difference between the two environments couldn’t be more stark, we don’t have to give up creature comforts to enjoy a slice of the outback. But we can if we want to.
Iga Warta Tours.
IMAGES: Getty; SATC/Brad Leue, John Montesi, Matt Nettheim, Morgan Sette.
