We had an amazing couple of Days at Alpana Station in the Flinders Ranges
Day 6 Rawnsley Park Station to Alpana Station 7th September 70 Km
Another cold morning 4C. Left around 10am. Not long into the journey we came across 20 emus crossing the road. We saw at least another 20 during the day.
We dropped into Wilpena pound on our way, picked up two messages while we were there (unexpectedly there was Telstra reception) one was exciting, the other very sad. That is life hey! Swings and roundabouts.
We weren’t there long, we continued our drive to Alpana Station, about half way there we stopped for morning tea overlooking the beautiful Flinders ranges and took lots of photos.
We arrived at Alpana around 12.30pm, we checked in with Sally, she is delightful. We have booked a four wheel drive, half day tour of the property with her tomorrow morning.
After we had set up the van we headed into Blinman(has the highest elevation of a town in SA), 5km away for lunch at the pub, then we had a walk around the Main Street, which was small but interesting. Then we drove a little way to an old copper mine and had a look around. Greg had lots of info on the mine which made it interesting.
On the way back we stopped and had a look at the cemetery, there were graves back to the 1870’s.
Back at the van we relaxed for an hour then drove 8km on very bumpy tracks on the property, through dry river beds, up hill and down dale passed kangaroos and sheep to Sunset Hill. The views at the top were magnificent. After soaking up the 360 degree panarama we set up our chairs to watch the sunset. It was beautiful, there was a slight breeze and it was icy cold.
After the sun had disappeared we headed back to the van for dinner.
There is an astronomy group here at the moment. They come twice a year, Sally said they like others here having a look through their (very large) telescopes. So in the pitch dark, we had fun trying to find the 200m path to where they were. We did have a torch but were mindful to keep it close to the ground. Was an interesting walk! The first few people we saw, didn’t seem to speak English, so we headed over to a larger group. We stayed for a few minutes, but didn’t find them welcoming so made the trek back to the van. That was disappointing, but we got our chairs out and sat in the middle of the paddock we are camped in and stargazed, with the help of an app on Greg’s phone. The sky was amazing, so many stars. As you can imagine with the astronomy group up here, most of the planets were in view. I think the only one not out was mercury. It was cold outside, so after a while we went inside the van and put the aircon on. We have power to the van here, but no water which is ok, because we have our water tanks half full, enough for our 2 days here. It’s going to be a cold night. Looking forward to our tour tomorrow.
Day 7 Alpana Station Saturday 8th September 2018
It was a cold night, around 2C. We were all ready to go when Sally picked us up at 9am this morning for a tour of her station. She has been doing tours for 11 years. Her father in law started them 25 years ago. We paid extra so we could go along in the car with Sally and two other couples did a tag along using UHF Radio to communicate.
Alpana is the third smallest station in area, it is 60,000 acres. Has 3000 sheep. Sally and her husband David are the 5th generation and their son and wife started working on the farm last year, so that is 6 generations to work this land. Impressive.
First we had a look at the original homestead, built in 1878. It has 4 rooms with a lean to out the back with the kitchen and laundry. They have been restoring it and are going to convert it into a museum. Next we went to the wool shed. They shear for 6 days in November, a good shearer can shear 160 sheep per day earning $3.20 per sheep shorn. They have good quality Merino, producing good fleece at around 20 microns. There are 1000 ewes and 2000 weathers (males) here, and another 800 on their farm near Hawker.
The sheeps teeth wear out from the feed here and are ground out at around 6-7yrs of age. So when they get to that age they are sold,after shearing, and end up as pet food.
The Wool goes to auction in Melbourne and is sold through Landmark. They get to set a reserve price for their wool. If it doesn’t reach the reserve it can keep going to auction every fortnight for up to 6 months with free storage. That allows them time to get the price they want before having to reduce their reserve.
The fleece grows 10cm per year about 6.5kg per sheep, they get a premium price, $16.00 per kilo for their wool. Others shear more often and get smaller length.
They muster their sheep into nearby paddocks 3 weeks before shearing. They spot the last of their herd with the help of a plane owned by a neighbour and round them up with motor bikes and dogs.
We saw a rabbit, lots of kangaroos, Euro and western greys, emus and a few birds as well as merino sheep and feral goats as we drove around the property today.
Blinman creek runs through their property. There is a 600 metre drop between Blinman and Parachilna. When there are heavy rains the creek runs quickly and the water only stays for a few hours. They haven’t had a flood for 6 years, and the drought of the last 2 years is worse than the long drought from 1991 to 2005 because in the long drought they had some rain every 4-6 months, the last 2 years have basically been dry.
We saw a Mesa, called Great Wall of China.
At the moment 5-10% of ewes have lambs. A good year would be 70%. Farms Much further south like to get 120% as many have twins. So their flock is decreasing which is going to make the next 2-4 years very hard for them.
We saw 300 year old local native pine, they make good building material and great fence posts. The wood is naturally termite resistant. There are many of these trees on the property.
We drove up Mt Nielsen, it is the highest mountain in the Flinders that you can drive up, 700 m above sea level. There were wonderful 360 degree views. It is an amazing property. Up there we saw Aboriginal rock structures, (they looked like stacks), no one knows what they represent. It has been suggested for rain making ceremonies or markers to indicate where water is.
But they may have been made for fun by youngsters or as trading markers.
From Mt Nielsen we could see Lake Torrens, Australia’s second largest salt lake.
There are 3000 paddocks under Pastoral leases in SA. They have 6 of them. The stocking rate on Pastoral leases is set by the govt.
Alpana land has Pastoral lease land, Freehold land (the 133acre home farm) and Perpetual miscellaneous leased land.
Blinman area has the only land in state with perpetual leases, it will be freeholded eventually but govt has it in the too hard basket for the time being.
Next we headed to the Cascades, an area of a creek fed by a running spring, a beautiful area of rock pools.
On the last part of our tour one of the tagalong cars got a flat tyre, ? so we spent around 30mins helping with the changing of the tyre and getting them back on the track.
Our tour finished around 2pm, it was a fantastic way to see the property and learn a bit about the area and it’s history.
After lunch we went into Blinman to see the Flinders Ranges “a brush with art” exhibition at the Blinman Memorial Hall. It was an interesting exhibition of the works of local artists.
In 2009 the road from Wilpena to Blinman was bitumenised, it has made a big difference to tourism in the area. That was easy to see by the number of “baby boomer” Harley’s parked in the Main Street this afternoon.
After dinner we lit a camp fire and sat around and talked with our neighbours. It was a very enjoyable day.
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