Burra, Clare Valley Region, SA

 It was a quiet day yesterday with Philip having a wheel alignment on the Toyota and myself booked in for a cut and colour.  Jobs completed and satisfied with both.  So today it was time to hit the tourist trail again, this time to the township of Burra on the northern end of the Clare Valley.

What can I tell you about Burra.  It is a State Heritage listed town because of its wealth of outstanding historic buildings and the opportunity it offers the visitor to understand a little of what it was like in a 19th century copper mining town. The town came up with the idea of offering a "Burra Heritage Passport Key" that gives access to eight locked sites around the town.  For a small fee you are given the key, map and a guide book which lists a total of 49 historic sites spread out over a distance of 11km that you can walk or drive.

Our first stop was the Monster Mine Site where we visited the Engine Room that had great views from the third floor looking out over the old mine pit. I don't pretend to understand how these massive engines operate but Philip was enthralled.

After the mine we drove to a lookout that offered us a great view of Burra township with it's lovely rolling hills in the background and from here it was to the old Burra Railway Station with a display of ladies dresses from the early 1900's in the "Ladies Waiting Room".

We continued to follow the Burra Heritage Trail that took us past many more historic buildings and we stopped at the Redruth Gaol.  We had the key to enter the goal area and read that it was erected in 1856 and was the first gaol in South Australia outside Adelaide.  The goal was closed in 1894 and was renovated and reopened as a Girls Reformatory in 1897 until its closure in 1922.  And if you think the goal looks familiar it was also used in the movie "Breaker Morant".

Our last stop was at the "dug-outs".  The early rapid developments of the Burra Copper Mine led to a housing shortage so around 1800 people lived in dug-outs known as Creek Street. We had a look inside them and they were dark and dank and I read that in 1851 a flood devastated Creek Street and by 1860 the dugouts were deserted.

We finished the tourist drive around 1.30 and headed to the Burra Hotel that has a reputation for good quality and reasonably priced meals.  The review was not wrong and we had a delicious meal of Saltbush Snags and veggie for Philip while I chose the home-made Lamb Pie, Salad and Chips.

I just want to leave you with one last photo that you may remember from the cover of Midnight Oil's album "Diesel and Dust".  The old abandoned homestead could really tell some stories.

Clare, Clare Valley, South Australia

This is our fifth day in Clare and lucky for us have we have another five more days to look forward to.  It is a beautiful area and so vastly different from where we have been in the past couple of months.  Clare is around 150km north west of Adelaide so it is close enough for many to leave the city confines for the weekend and come to this area to enjoy the wines, restaurants and history.

The area was first settled in 1836 when pioneers pushed north from Adelaide seeking land and resources.  As I mentioned in a previous post, pastoralists took up vast sheep runs but unreliable rain sent many farmers broke.  It was the the Prussian Jesuits who brought winemaking skills (and vine cuttings) into the region in 1851 and one of Australia's oldest wineries, Sevenhill, is still run by Jesuit priests.

But what first brought Clare to my attention was the Riesling Trail.  This is a trail shared by both cyclists and pedestrians that is around 30kms in length and was originally an old railway line that ran between Clare and Auburn.  Knowing how much Philip enjoys his cycling this was always going to be a place to visit.

The second day we were here we walked around 10km of the trail that takes you past wineries, coffee shops, B & B's and is a great walk.  The third day we decided to hire me an E-Bike and cycle the trail.  I must admit to being a little nervous as I haven't been on a bike since I was around 12 years old!  I need not have worried though as I felt very comfortable.  You never forget how to ride a bike.  The E-Bike makes cycling a breeze.  I had it set with the least amount of assisted power and the hardest gear (8) and never got up a sweat.  It was fun but I don't think I will be racing out to buy one.  You certainly can't class riding an E Bike as exercise! Philip on the other hand said it was hard to keep up with the E-Bike and he certainly felt every little rise along the trail.  He built up a good sweat over our 30k ride.

On Friday we celebrated my 66th birthday by dining at SLATE restaurant at Pikes Winery.  This was a recommendation by friends in Palm Cove and it was certainly an excellent choice.  We chose the lunchtime four course degustation that included Sourdough (straight from the oven) with salted butter; Tuna Tartare on Nori Crisps; Roast Duck Leg with Beetroot Chips, Potato Chips and Baked Potato in Paprika Sauce ; and finally Buttermilk Pannacotta with Mandarin Puree.  We washed it down with a lovely Pikes Pinot Grigio and ended the meal with coffee and liqueur. Needless to say no dinner for us that night!

We have driven a couple of the Scenic Drives in the area and covered some pretty amazing country.  From the rolling hills with sheep dotting the hillside to the acres upon acres of grape vines. From the paddocks of golden canola to the outer areas of the valley where we see some of the largest gum trees with their huge tree trunks. We see sheep grazing between grape vines and kangaroos lying lazily beneath the tree canopies. We pass a one lonely man pruning grape vines that stretch endlessly before him.  How very daunting. You have to love Australia and Australians.

The heritage listed township of Mintaro was a favourite and as we walked the streets we were taken back to another century and could almost hear the clip clop of hooves along the roadways.  The old sandstone houses here have mostly been renovated but those that haven't still hold a wonderful charm.  There is a slate mine behind the town and slate has been used extensively within the township.

After Mintaro we head towards Martindale Hall that was built in 1879.  It is truly magnificent and if you ever watched the movie "Picnic at Hanging Rock" you would recognise it immediately.  We park the car in the car park and walk the pathway towards the house.  There is a large circular driveway in front of the. house and we imagine all the coaches setting guests out in front of the staircase leading up to the mansion.  Inside the mansion everything has been kept exactly as it was in 1879 and indeed the mansion was bequeathed to the South Australian Government so that it could be kept this way for the public to enjoy.

On our way to Martindale Hall we stopped at the Mintaro Maze.  This is a place that families with young children come to enjoy.  There are games set up in the courtyard and many families are here playing games with their kids.  We walk through the living hedge maze that has quirky statues at every corner.  It takes us a whole five minutes to find our way out but it was fun.  The thing we loved the most was the tiny little handles that you turn to play you a song.  You have to guess the song but sadly we cannot guess any of the five tunes!

So that is a quick round up of what we have been doing over the past five days.  We have many more things planned and time will dictate how many of those things we will be able to achieve.  The van is still our priority and we have an auto electrician booked for Wednesday so that is number one priority.

Leigh Creek to Clare, South Australia

This morning we left Leigh Creek to travel around 400km to Clare in the Clare Valley of South Australia.  Before we left Leigh Creek though, we made a quick trip to Aroona Dam.  The dam was originally built for the Leigh Creek township when it was a thriving coal mining town but since the mine has closed and the town switched to underground water, the dam has been de-commissioned.  Now it is simply a beautiful place to put the boat in to go fishing or on a hot summers day, pack a picnic lunch and swim in the cool lake water.  

As we travel towards Clare the highway runs parallel to the old Ghan railway line that ran from Port Augusta to Alice Springs for 100 years beginning in 1878.  It breaks my heart to see it disused as are so many railway lines across Australia.  The railway bridge with its huge stone pillars, that we pass outside Leigh Creek, is very impressive.

Our journey also follows the Flinders Ranges that I have come to love so much.  They continually change colour as the sun moves across the sky.  We also pass many many deserted stone homes that have disintegrated.  Philip and I talk about the English graziers who came to South Australia back in the 1800's.  They moved onto the vast plains below the ranges and because there had been quite a few years of unusually good rainfall the green grass looked perfect sheep grazing country.  Of course it was an exception to have such good rainfall and inevitably a drought hit the area.  A drought that lasted many years and all the graziers had to abandon their grazing plots.

We stop at Hawker for brunch and to re-fuel the car.  It is an interesting town that sits on a cross road.  One road leads to Wilpena Pound and beyond and the road we enter on takes you to Leigh Creek and beyond, the beyond being either the Simpson or Strzlecki Deserts!  The town was established in the 1800's and has a number of lovely old buildings.

As we leave the Flinders Ranges behind we are now in cropping country and once again we see the fields of golden canola.  Just like we saw in Western Australia last year, the crop will start going to seed in the coming months and then those seeds will be harvested to extract the canola oil.

As we approach Clare Valley the scene changes to vineyards....many vineyards, but sadly we see that many of those old vines have been dug out of the ground.  Will they be replaced?  We don't know. But we do know that a recent Australian report says that we have around 2 billion litres of wine in storage, that is around 2.8 billion bottles of wine.  This is a staggering figure and can be attributed mostly to the tariffs that were imposed on us by China that cut our wine exports by around a third.  It will be interesting to see how the industry recovers.

So that brings us to Clare where we will be for at least the next seven days, perhaps more.  We have to have a little more work done on our Power Management System that will entail the services of a local auto electrician.  We won't be moving from here until we know that everything is working well.