Farina

26th September

Today we drove to Farina. This is a deserted and dusty town full of ruins which originated due to the Ghan Railway. Over the time the town slowly died and is falling down.

If I learnt any lesson today it was that I am so glad that I wasn’t a pioneer woman living in Farina in the late 1800s!

Farina Ruins
 

Down to Lyndhurst where basically is only famous for being the start of the Strzelecki Track.
Down to Leigh Creek where all the houses look the same and is basically a town for the coal miners. It was very neat and full of services. No need to turn off into there again. Been once and that is enough.

At Beltana Roadhouse we turned off and went to the historic town of Beltana. Most of the buildings here are still in good shape. Clearly a lot of them are still lived in which helps. It still was a very deserted looking town – you could call it on the verge of being a ghost town.

Further on down the road we drove the Parachilna Gorge Drive which was again another really good and well maintained road. This gorge had lots of campers probably because it was so close to the main road. We drove to Blinman and turned off to do a round trip using a PAR (Public Access Road) which would take us to Artimore Ruins and Nuccaleena Mine.

Parachilna Gorge
 

Things didn’t go as planned. The start of the road was fine but when we turned off onto the PAR that’s when things ceased to be fun. The first problem was we thought that the PAR would have been in almost as good as condition as all the other roads we had been using. Unfortunately that was not the case – the road probably had never been maintained. Our bible and map had given us the absolute correct information but we were unaware of the actual state of these PARs. We didn’t have a lot of time so slow going made us very late. We wouldn’t have minded if we were on our own but because my father-in-law was following we were totally aware of his tiredness and desire to finish. What made matters worse was the Artimore Ruins probably didn’t stand up to the hassle of getting there. If there had been plenty of time maybe our attitudes would have been better. Because of all this I missed out on seeing the Nuccaleena Mine.

We didn’t get back to the Station until quite late then everything was rushed to have dinner and get to bed. What would have been a good day turned into ½ a good day. All things aside though I personally enjoyed the drive especially through Hannigan’s Gap and thought that parts were magnificent. Maybe I need to stop worrying about what other people are thinking!!!!!!

Until again…