Arkaroola's mining history: Keith explores the Outback region of South Australia
The stark, raw beauty of the Flinders Ranges is known the world over. It's a place that lures nature lovers back time and time again. The gentle hues of the giant cauldron-like formation of Wilpena Pound and its surrounding ranges have drawn artists and photographers here for decades.
A few hours further on, the drier, fiercer Northern Flinders can be even more compelling. But amongst the geological chaos there is a far-flung haven - Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.
Six hundred kilometres from Adelaide, Arkaroola is six hundred square kilometres of wild and unforgiving country that's almost overwhelming in magnitude.
It's in an area rich in significance to the indigenous Adnyamathanha people - they have been at home here for thousands of years.
But its powerful places have only begun to open up to most of us in the last 30 years or so - the blink of an eye.
One of the best ways to get a handle on this country is to take a flight with Doug Sprigg of Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. This passionate geologist cum pilot will surely infect you with his enthusiasm for the ancient patchwork that spreads out below for as far as the eye can see.
But it wasn't the stunning scenery that caught the attention of the first Europeans to venture into this country - they were interested in what lay beneath it all…
"Copper mining began around here in 1856," explained Doug as he banked the plane around so we could get a better view of the mountains below. "That was only 20 years into South Australia's European habitation. It was amazing that people got so far north so quickly."
Back on the ground you get a different perspective. We're dwarfed by the strangely beautiful and massive geological puzzle. A lot of it is now fairly accessible to thanks to the network of tracks opened up by the Sprigg family but imagine what it was like have to walk in and find your own way without modern day maps.
The Flinders Ranges are strewn with fragments of grand plans and broken dreams… of times when men brought their horses and bullocks and picks and shovels up here to carve out a living.
Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary guide, Ryan McMillan took us to an old mineshaft near Welcome Pound. "The shaft is pretty deep," he said. "It's probably close to 25 metres straight down. They dug a fair bit of copper out of this mine. These are close to being the only mines in the Flinders Ranges that actually ran at a profit.
The Welcome Mine is about 10 kilometres from Arkaroola Village along the Paralana Hot Springs Road. But for the three blokes that ran it, this landscape was anything but welcoming…
"The guys were out here from about the 1860s for about three years - they dug a fair bit of ore out and carted it off straight away and had it processed. They made a big profit out of it. They didn't keep digging to find more - they got out at the right time."
The hand-cut termite resistant mulga logs used to shore up the shafts have stood the test of time… unlike the miners. Despite their best efforts and brief success, the elements turned brutal and won the day.
"Drought stopped them. 1863-64 the Great Drought set in and lasted for about 7 years. Most of the people left and headed down south where there was water."
Further along the track and up a creek-line another abandoned mine from more recent times. But the adit doesn't follow a lead of copper - it was dug in the quest for something far more precious - gold.
Alan Lively did all right here in the early 1950s when he took out 230 ounces over about 6 years. It makes a classic Postcard image now but imagine what it must have been like working the diggings in the middle of a long hot summer - day in, day out in the hope of striking it lucky?
Mr Lively's residence is a ruin now and the mine deserted but Ryan told us about a professor of geology who bets a slab of beer that he will always find gold while panning at Livelys - and he hasn't had to pay up yet!
Mines like Lively's, Welcome, Nuccaleena, Sliding Rock, Bolla Bollana and a heap more - are all legacies of bold plans exploit these hills. But efforts to exploit the Northern Flinders didn't end when the copper and gold mines closed.
"Uranium mining goes back to 1911," explained Doug Sprigg. "They started uranium mining here in 1911 and went through to 1913 and then 1922, 23 then again in the 1940s…"
The first prospecting camps went up among the stony ridges around Mount Painter.
Camels were the only way to cart the equipment in and take the samples back out again for testing. Like the miners that came before them, it was hot, dry and difficult work.
While some uranium was exported for the production of radium for medical purposes… the price wasn't strong enough to sustain an operation so far in the wilderness.
But a new demand for it arose during the Second World War when the British Government suggested that "Mount Painter might make a useful contribution to a vital defence purpose".
Interest was so great that in 1945, the then Premier, Tom Playford took esteemed physicist Sir Mark Oliphant on a special flight to the diggings to see the potential first hand.
When the pilot got over the Northern Flinders Ranges he said 'it all looked like stark, rocky chaos'. He was right and some things don't change. As it turned out the uranium ore wasn't suitable for military purposes and remains in the ground.
The Northern Flinders region is still a patchwork of chiselled geological confusion… and there's still mineral exploration going on here too.
But for most of us - they are a simply place you just have to experience to fully appreciate.
The best way to do that is by basing yourself at the village at Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. There's a range of accommodation options available - from camping to luxury motel units.
Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary
600 kms north of Adelaide
Freecall: 1800 676 042
Published 15th October 2006
