After our long trip across the Nullarbor it was great to stop in Ceduna on the eastern side of the Great Australian Bight for a few days. We were last here in November 2013. We spent some time revisiting the Aboriginal Culture Centre with its beautiful artworks and also visited the museum. An hour crabbing from the jetty yielded 3 lovely blue swimmer crabs - enough for dinner.
A few days of R&R and we were back on the road, heading across the top of the Eyre Peninsula to Kimba, about halfway across Australia, 1500km from both the east and west coasts. Christmas is coming and most small towns have their decorations out. The granite statue represents the farmers, graziers and crops of the district.
Our next stop was Port Pirie on the Spencer Gulf. Cherryl lived in this house as a toddler (it's had a facelift or two over the past 60 years). We took the informative City Tour from the Information Centre which was 90 minutes well spent. The Smelter Tours are unavailable at the moment due to refurbishment of the smelter so the City Tours are being offered as an alternative.
We were on the first tour and all attendees provided feedback that we hope the City Tours will continue when the Smelter Tours restart. We passed many interesting old buildings. The old cottages were build on slag heaps and as they become empty the land is being cleared and replanted. There will be no more building on this land in future.
Port Pirie was established on essentially reclaimed swampland. Minerals mined in Broken Hill were transported to Port Pirie for smelting. Lead and zinc were the main minerals processed with silver, copper, gold and other minerals processed in lesser quantities. There has been an active lead abatement program in place for some years and airborne lead levels are continuously monitored around the area. Port Pirie is also a major grain handling port.
We stayed at the Rangeview Caravan Park while we were in Port Pirie, about 5km from town on the highway. We had lovely views of the southern Flinders Ranges.
From Port Pirie we travelled towards Adelaide. We drove through the vineyards of the Clare Valley wine region and stopped off for coffee at Crystal Brook and lunch at Auburn on our way to Gawler where we're staying with friends for the next few weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment