Leisuretime Travel
Melrose - A 4x4 Trip

The old signs point to a couple of roads a little less travelled. Out here in the rolling hills that separate the mid-north from the coast, public roads will take you passed glimpses of our pioneering history and onto a ridgetop with stunning views of Gulf St. Vincent.

"So what's this track, Noel?"
"The locals call this the Bridle Track or the Bridal Path"
"And why's that?"
"When the Germein Gorge was used for transporting grain and wool to Port Germain from the eastern farm country, it would have been very busy with wagons, with horse teams and bullock teams, so this was used to drive stock over".

When the pioneering horsemen drove their sheep and cattle up and over these hills to the coast, they'd have seen the sailing ships waiting in the Gulf, ready to take their stock to markets throughout Australia and overseas. Now those joining Noel Battersby's four wheel drive adventures look out over a very different scene. From the patchwork of fields have grown cities like Port Pirie and Port Augusta.

In the early days towns along this stretch of coast relied on dams fed by hills run-off for their water supply. But with rapid industrialisation during and after the war, the then Premier, Tom Playford, pushed ahead with one of the biggest engineering feats in the State's history, a pipeline stretching almost three hundred and sixty kilometres taking water from Morgan on the River Murray all the way to the emerging Iron Triangle city of Whyalla.

Down on the flat and soon Noel's tour heads back into the network of tracks branching off from the Germein Gorge, past reminders of our early pastoral history.

"The locals call that Little Hell"
"Why's that?"
"Because it's in a basin. It gets very hot in the summer, it's sheltered from all the winds"
"Yer, Little Hell"

Shepherd's huts like the Pohl family's stone cottage are scattered throughout this section of the Southern Flinders. And despite the harsh conditions, there was a sense of optimism. The stone blocks protruding from each wall were there just in case these early settlers decided to extend the family home. Legend has it that the occasional foreign sailor would jump ship and head for these hills, hiding out in stone cottages like this one. And many they got as far as this gem, tucked away in a steep gully in the shadow of Mount Remarkable.

"So Noel, what was the story with this place?"
"This is where Mr & Mrs Rankine lived in the middle of the eighteen hundreds"
"He was a shepherd, was he?"
"A shepherd for the Mount Remarkable run"
"Oh Wow"
"And then he eventually bought the property that he was a shepherd on"
"Fantastic"
"Isn't it unbelievable"

If you've ever wondered how life must have been for those who first settled this country, then a visit to Rankine's cottage is a must. You can only get here on foot or by four wheel drive, but the effort is well worth it.

"And they had a family here?"
"Yer, there was eleven children, I don't know how many of them lived here, but they had eleven children"
"God"
"It seemed a lot in those days, I would have thought"
"The thing that gets you when you come here, is that it's amazingly beautiful but it's very, very remote, it takes some hard work to get here"
"Yer, there was not vehicle, real vehicle, access to these hills at all. It was all pack horses or by foot, so everything that came in, came in by pack horse"

This humble stone hut tells a story of the bush which has been repeated throughout South Australia since European settlement. Small landowners being bought out by larger concerns.

"The next door neighbour generally, or another member of the family who had a property next door, so the properties are just getting bigger and they still are."
"So what do you feel when you're out there, four wheel driving, taking people around the district?"
"I just think it's nice to show them a part of South Australia that people don't see. People don't realise that they've got such nice scenery and there's a lot of history so close to where they live"

The visitors book highlights the name of one bloke who was certainly aware of this hut's history, ninety-one year old Otway Leonard Rankine, the grandson of the man who built this.

Rankine's Cottage is just one of Noel Battersby's Leisuretime Travel Four Wheel Drive Experiences. His half day tour from Melrose costs $55 and includes lunch.

You can contact Noel on 08 8666-2017 or email info@postcards.sa.com.au