Week 3 - Woomera to Uluru

We left Port Augusta and headed north up the Stuart Highway towards Darwin. Our first stop was at Woomera. Woomera was once the main test site for missiles and rockets of the Australian and British armed forces. It still is an experimental test site run by the air force, but not on the same scale as the late 20^th Century. At one time there were over 12000 residents of Woomera, mainly Australian, British and American armed forces and their families. Now it is like a ghost town. We set up camp then went for a walk into town. It felt like we were on a movie set with the streets and houses set up with military organisation, but empty of people. Only about 400 people live in Woomera now.

We visited the Woomera museum which was very interesting and told the story of the importance of the work done at Woomera in the past. Most missiles developed here were for military use but the first Australian satellite was also launched from here in the 1970’s. Woomera also played an important part in the development of the rockets for the Apollo missions.

We stayed for 2 nights then headed for Coober Pedy.  Along the way we stopped at Lake Hart. Lake Hart is a huge salt lake which rarely has any water in it. It was also a site for the main launch pad for Woomera but that was in the distance. This area is prohibited to access as there may be unexploded bombs on the lake surface.

We walked down to the lake but had to cross the main Indian-Pacific rail line to get to it (don’t try this at home).

Coober Pedy was awesome. It is the main source of Opal in the world. Over 85% of the world’s opal comes from here. The opal is dug from underground mines by people who pay for a mining licence. $180 will get you a 50m by 100m plot of land and you can start digging! They find the opal by drilling down and checking the drill spoil for traces of opal. If there is opal seen they widen the drill hole and mine the area. Consequently there are hills of dug up rock called mullock heaps littered all over the landscape.

We stayed in a caravan park which had its own mine and took a tour underground. It was very interesting and Nanna even found out how to find opal by using divining rods. Maybe we can come back some day and get a licence to dig!

Most of the people in Coober Pedy live underground as the temperatures in summer regularly exceed 45degrees. We visited an underground shop, art gallery and even a church (it couldn’t fall down if Pa went in as it was underground anyway).

While we were at Coober Pedy we took a long drive along the Oodnadatta track to the Breakaways group of mountains. These hills and mountains are separate from the main Stuart Range and so are called the breakaways. They are spectacular.

Along the road we visited the Moon Plains. Here it looks like the surface of the moon with the thick, black soil littered with glittering shards of mica. They sparkle in the sunlight making an awesome sight.

Just running next to the Moon Plains is the dingo fence. This fence was completed in the middle of last century and keeps dingoes out of the southern states, in particular the sheep farming areas. The fence runs for over 5000km from Queensland through South Australia and into NSW.

We tried our luck at noodling for opals in the mullock heaps but we didn’t have any luck.

There is a lack of water in Coober Pedy and the desert centre of Australia so even the caravan parks don’t have water for the vans. They have showers but you must pay for water for your caravan. They have a water station in the main street which is just like a petrol station only water. You drive the caravan up and fill up with water - $1 for 30 litres! We filled up before we left as we were heading for a few days free camping. We left Coober Pedy and headed for along 700+ drive to Uluru. We stopped at 2 free camps along the way. The first was at Agnes Creek where we went for a long walk along the dry creek bed after driving all day.

Pa took some night photos but the moon was a bit too bright.

The next day we drove across the border between SA and Northern Territory. 

We had lunch in the middle of Australia. That night we stayed at a free camp 100km from Uluru. It was very windy with dust blowing everywhere but we went for another walk when we arrived. Our poor car is very, very dusty after the driving down tracks and the fact that there is no water. The scenery changes rapidly as we drive northwards and there is always plenty to see. Tomorrow we arrive in Uluru where we will spend four nights before heading to Kings Canyon.