24 November 2011 - Rocks Reserve, near Hoskin Corner, South Australia

As I start this, the sun is still shining low on the golden hills about us, the birds are readying themselves for the farewell chorus and there is not another human or animal in sight, except for the two of us. We have indeed found ourselves in a very private camp.

We broke camp this morning at Maitland and drove up and down the main street slowly to enjoy for the last time, this pleasant little rural town, before heading north west toward the Copper Coast settlements. It is only thirty five kilometres up to Moonta, all across the rural grain lands, all golden in the bright sun, with the clear blue skies as a backdrop. This Yorke Peninsula is truly spectacular especially to those who appreciate rural scenes.

Moonta was indeed a surprise even though we had done our homework and realised that the copper triangle as it is known arises from the discovery of copper in 1860 here and the subsequent mass arrival of Cornish miners, swelling the population in the 1870s to 12,000, making it then the  largest town in South Australia apart from Adelaide.

Moonta

Here at Moonta, much of the mining town is heritage listed but it is also the town itself that is frozen in time; the charm of the old buildings, all in use and a delight to the eye. We called in to The Cornish Kitchen and purchased two of their famous Cornish Pasties which we have since eaten for dinner, meeting all expectations. We called in to the Art Gallery where there was an exhibition of art works by the local school pupils, all of which was very good, some quite brilliant.

We drove into the heritage village hoping to visit the museum but found that it was not going to open until early afternoon and we hoped to be further on our journey by then. As we had been told at the art gallery, all tourism attractions and services in the town are manned by volunteers.

Moonta museum, still closed

We did see the remnants of the water reservoir, the concrete sides of a tank that once held 4,800,000 litres of water. Prior to this, householders had carted their own water and stored it in their own underground tanks where errant children frequently drowned. This larger public facility put an end to that. Apparently the caretaker of the reservoir had a small dinghy he used to clear any rubbish out. 

We drove on down to Moonta Bay which is now just a continuation of Moonta proper, and admired the immaculate residences en route. Down at the water, keen fishermen were out on the jetty, braving the wind. We admired the scene, the shoreline and the caravan park right on the water’s edge, then returned to the rig and headed north to Wallaroo, the port from where both copper and grain were shipped. By 1923, with costs skyrocketing and copper prices sinking, the copper mines and related processing industry was closed down.

 We did hear that grain is no longer shipped from here and yet there is still great evidence of the area still being used as a depot at the very least. Here, as all over the peninsular are large banks of grain silos at these collection depots, all belonging to Viterra who obviously has a monopoly on the industry. Or perhaps this is a brand name for a farmers co-operative? According to our informants at Minlaton yesterday, grain is now only chipped out of Port Giles and Port Adelaide, and yet we actually saw it being moved my conveyor belt onto a ship at Ardrossan. We also were told that much of last year’s crop is still sitting in storage waiting for shipment. Who knows where the truth lies in all of this?

Another rural scene, grain fields forever

Here at Wallaroo there are the partial ruins of the smelter, stores and refinery. The informative displays for this are still a work in progress which explained why I managed to get us lost looking for a picnic place. The waterfront is in the throes of development, a marina taking form and the facilities for the plebs currently taking second place. In a few more years this should be a top class resort. But even now, this and Moonta Bay are already popular holiday destinations.

From here, once lunch was over, we headed just the nine kilometres east to Kadina, which was even a greater surprise than Moonta had been. Kadina is the largest town on the Yorke Peninsula and really has all the services one would need to stay and not head for Adelaide. We drove on through and continued east through Kulpara and on, finally joining Highway One at the top of Gulf Saint Vincent before reaching Port Wakefield.

The flat land crossed to reach this small settlement is sandy and barren but for the saltbush. Gone were the manicured grain fields and we wondered how far these poor lands stretched.

Port Wakefield is noted in the tourist literature as being a must stop and see so we did, driving through it about three times having lost the exit due to road works. It truly is old and was absolutely deserted, suggesting a film set in waiting. We did not linger but left the main highway and headed east a further twenty five kilometres to Balaclava. We passed huge depots for grain, stored both in silos and ground bins, close to the rail, with lines of trucks waiting their turn at the weighbridge. The land returned once more to grain growing with some sheep and cattle, the latter being few.

At Balaclava, we parked and wandered about. Here too are old buildings, all occupied with business in one form or another, and people were buzzing about with their business. While Balaclava lacked the tidy charm of the other towns passed through today, it did seem to be the most active.

Our camp earmarked for the night from both the CMCA bible and the Camps 5, the latter which showed it to be only a day stop, was not much further on, and soon we found ourselves turning on to a gravel road. Chris was not pleased that his Chief Navigator had directed us to this dirt when he had just recently managed to clean both cruiser and caravan from the dirt gathered on our run down the middle of the continent. However we were both delighted with the reserve when we arrived, driving down into a gully of rocks and trees, with a chain of water holes which are the base of a sometimes creek. I think it is a lovely place.