Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary - Northern Flinders Ranges
with Keith ConlonJust before the Flinders Ranges peter out into the central Australian desert, they are at their most chaotically awesome and spectacular, but within them is the comfort of Arkaroola Village.
It is 660km north of Adelaide, and I took the quick way with Banksia Adventures and their Fly the Flinders package which sees you on the ground within two hours at nearby Balcanoona airstrip on the plains near the old station (now headquarters for the National Parks and Wildlife Service in the Gammon Ranges National Park).
A short dirt road trip into the frenzied jigsaw of peaks and ridges that makes the top end of the Flinders so different there is a mantle of safety in this stark wilderness.
Arkaroola village sits safety above a U-bend in the Whywyana Creek. The creekbeds are dry for year on end, but a cloudburst can create rampaging floods. The second generation Sprigg family have spent more than $1 million upgrading the accommodation and general catering facilities, and that's timely with eco-tourists from near and far discovering this harshly beautiful area. This is your base for walking trails, guided four wheel drive tours and flights over what geologist-turned-conservationist Reg Sprigg created - a vast wilderness sanctuary of more than 600 square kilometers.
The village contains several levels of accommodation, from newly refitted motel rooms in Mawson Lodge to a caravan park and camping areas along the creek line. Reg Sprigg's mentor, Sir Douglas Mawson brought Reg and fellow University of Adelaide geology students up here into these twisted and contorted desert alps full of "strange beauty and geological puzzles", as he put it. When the opportunity came up to buy the uneconomic sheep station, the Arkaroola Run, Reg grabbed it, and with his wife Griselda they built this very different Flinders experience.
Nowadays, daughter Margaret manages the facility. Reg died in 1994, but Griselda still lives up the ridge to the back of the village, and son Doug pops up everywhere. He revels in sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of the flora and fauna and geology of the area, especially over the trestle table and under canvas during their regular bush banquets. (Softly lit, Griselda's Hill rises dramatically before you as a feast is presented under lantern lights).
We caught a glimpse of his passion for astronomy too. He's built an observatory on a ridge above the oasis with a very powerful telescope to take advantage of light and smog pollution free skies. Guests join in the search among the stars.
If Doug had to choose one pursuit only from his passions, however, I reckon it would be flying. With water in Lake Eyre, he's been taking off for scenic fights there almost every day. The Arkaroola airstrip is a rustic unpaved line with a creek bed at either end. It's on the road into the village, as it comes off dry plains east of the ranges. Doug's favourite flight plan takes him and visitors over his own very bumpy backyard.
As his commentary soon reveals, Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary is crammed with national geological monuments.
"There's Mt Painter" He observes, pointing us to a steep dome rising high above the jumble around it.
"Its rocks date back up to two billion years - half the age of the earth".
It's no wonder this muddle of peaks and deep winding gorges fascinated Sir Douglas Mawson. He was on field expeditions here before his heroic Antarctic ventures.
"What's the big creek below?"
"That's Arkaroola Creek. It meanders north from the Gammon Ranges National Park and swings out into the plain to the east. It's very important to the Adynamatna Dreaming".
Their story tells of the great snake Arkaroo living on the high Gammons plateau who came down to drink Lake Frome dry, creating the salt pan of today. On his return his writhing and needed stops created the serpentine gorge and serveral permanent waterholes. The Armchair, Dinnertime Hill, Mt Gee and a host of sunny creekbeds and shadowy gorges pass under us, and we marvel at the impossible terrain. We're not alone in our admiration. In the 1940's a RAAF pilot wrote about its "contrasting, stark, rocky chaos and chiseled alpine confusion. And he went on "the ridges just stand up and go crazy". And they do!
There was one more adventure awaiting us on this short visit. Arkaroola venturers remember it as the trip that defines a holiday.
"I was stunned by the absolute splendour of it", one enthused.
He was talking about The Ridgetop Tour. In fact, it's a bone rattler of a four-wheel-drive ride up an old mining exploration track dating from the Exoil Company's search for uranium in these mountains. Back in 1969 their dozer drivers dared to tackle the sandstone and granite heights to avoid big creek washouts. Coulthards Lookout presents the first all-round panorama only a few kilometres north of the village. When aboriginal elder Andy Coulthard was brought up here when the track opened, it's said his eyes filled with tears as he saw his country all below him. The view is so stunning, even for us, that we can begin to understand his emotion.
The Spriggs saw the potential of this rough roller coaster, and so thirty years ago they asked their guides to take people on the four hour experience. Ed Poley was our articulate expert and 4WD genius, pointing out features from distant Lake Frome to pretty wild flowers at our feet, helping his guests digest the visual feast. But this look out stop was only the entrČe.
The Ridgetop Track soon skirts Mr Painter, enormous and mysteriously pock marked with caves. It's thought this section was once underground and composed of gas belching mud. "Ridgetop" is a misnomer in one sense, because we seem to rise up to one razorback ridge, only to plunge down the other side. The result is that a new panorama suddenly presents itself as we scramble to another saddle. Our tour group paused again to photograph a magnificent granite outcrop called Split Rock, and marvel at the ranges still to conquer.
The final stretch tests driver and machine - and adrenaline-pumping passengers - to the limit. The final assault takes us up to an erie called Siller's Lookout. The rocky prominence drops away hundreds of metres to gorges below. We're up with the eagles . . . literally. Two wedge-tails soar past us on the late afternoon updraft. We see a great jagged wall of high ridges running across our northern view. Freeling Heights mark the beginning of the Mawson Plateau, and in the distance beyond it, the northern tip of the Flinders Ranges, with the central Australian desert around it.
Our guide Ed directs us to a bottle green clump of trees where the ranges meet the plains.
"That's Paralana Hot Springs - they're the only springs in the world heated by radium decay. They never stop flowing".
His flock listen and look at the all-round panorama in hushed wonderment, until I coax some responses for Postcards.
"This is magnificent country".
"You see a lot, you hang on a lot, you learn a lot".
Arkaroola Sanctuary is so different from the rest of the Flinders. There is a sense of awesome chaos up here, evidence of ancient oceans, distant Ice Ages, volcanic upsurges and more.
Sir Douglas Mawson wanted this to be one great geological museum - and his wish is now fulfilled at Arkaroola.
Details:
Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary
Northern Flinders Ranges
South Australia
Freecall: 1800 676 042
Facsimile: (08) 8648 4846
E-Mail: res@arkaroola.on.et
Internet: www.arkaroola.on.net
(A very comprehensive and informative website.)Arkaroola Sanctuary Flight
$82.50 each for 2 passengers
$71.50 each for 3 passengersRidgetop Tour
$66.00 per personBanksia Adventures:
The Ultimate Flinders 4WD Experience
Departs Mondays
4 days
Wilpena, Arkaroola, Parachilna & Blinman
$1149 per person(twin share) minimum 2 persons.Fly the Flinders
Departs on application
Arkaroola 2 days flying adventure
$1080 per person (twin share) minimum 3 personsOther 4WD Tours of Flinders
Contact Banksia Adventures
Ph +61 (0) 8 8236 9222
fax +61 (0) 8 8236 9112
email adventures@banksia-adventures.com.au or bookings via SA Travel Centre. 18 King William St Adelaide SA 5000 1300 655 276If you need any additional information please email: info@postcards.sa.com.au
