On the Trail of Priscilla
Well now, after all the trials and tribulations of the Subaru we have been trundling our way around Australia for three weeks now. Woohoo! Loads of fun, and even more shenanigans along the route: read and find out.
Minor pre-trip disasters
We’re beginning to feel that some bad karma is being atoned right now, as very little has happened easily. A day before we were due to set off, my bag was stolen in Sydney – it was Little Miss Thief, in the toilets, with the knack of grabbing bags from the side of the cubicle rather than under the door. Beware!! Anyway, that set us back a bit while I sorted out police reports and a new passport, and meanwhile we readied ourselves for lots of driving.
By this point we were living in the Coogee Beachside backpackers – twinned with the Wizard of Oz a couple of doors down, both a right laugh – and getting back into the swing of living out of a bag. Then we set off, and came back the very same day cos Scrappy couldn’t make it over the Blue Mountains without overheating. Oh balls, think we, and head home tail between legs. Not outdone yet though, for enter the mystical UK credit card and fantastic exchange rate to buy new wheels: a Ford Falcon named Doris – yes, we name all cars 🙂 Dodgy perhaps, but we have friends looking after Scrappy while we travel and we’ll figure out how to get rid of the other on our return. Holiday much more important!
Broom-broom
There doesn’t appear to be a great deal in the centre of Australia, so we’ve been doing a hell of a lot of driving between stops, going in a straight line for hours, and gaping whenever a rare corner appears.
First stop was Dubbo, but there wasn’t much we wanted to see – plus it’s close enough to Sydney for a return visit – so on we trundled to Broken Hill. It was here that we realised that we would be following in the footsteps of that great pink thing: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Loads of movies get filmed in the outback it seems, and we keep running into them. So here we had a town famous first for it’s silver mines, then the Flying Doctors, and more recently the odd film credit. We broke out the tent at Lakeview Caravan Park (not bad, pricey due to Labour Day holiday) and set off to see some sights.
The Silver City still has one working mine, but others have been renovated for tourism. We went to Delprats, where Ron the extremely knowledgeable and talkative (5 million words per minute) ex-miner leads you down the shaft and details everything from the history of the town, union riots and all, to the tools used and working conditions 400ft underground. Fantastic, well worth the $26! Just above Delprats is the Miners Memorial, testament to the hundreds of men who died and listing as much information about each of them as the attached museum could uncover.
The next day we headed out to the Flying Doctors base, which wasn’t in operation (Sunday) but we could see the planes, communications centre, medical chests used by station families, and a good video about the RFDS work. There was even a replica of the plane used in the TV series, a slightly cheesy addition but one that seems to have advertised the service far and wide.
There are plenty of other things to see and do in Broken Hill, most either mining or art related – one of the weirdest being the Sculpture Symposium 11km north of town. A few years ago the town sponsored a dozen artists to stay on a windy hilltop for several weeks and sculpt a desert-inspired masterpiece. These remain on display and range massively in style – classical to abstract, some with clear mythological roots, but all quite impressive. Then again, I was told off when I said the Mexican Jaguar-inspired piece looked like Homer Simpson eating a doughnut (though this appears to be a common misinterpretation).
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Silverton Hotel
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Another good trip is out to Silverton, with the westernmost pub in New South Wales (allegedly) and location for many XXXX ads, A Town Like Alice and assorted movies, full of photos and pearls of wisdom – courtesy of the Uni of Life. Silverton is a virtual ghost town however, so don’t expect party central – just a bunch of tourists scurrying from one old building to another. There’s a lookout used in Mad Max II a bit further along the road as well, out by the reservoir – vast desert as far as the eye can see. No mad post-apocalyptic bikers though.
Onwards into the desert
Our next leg took us into South Australia (yay! another state!) though not for long, I admit. It was here that we passed through the southern end of the Flinders Ranges – which look so gorgeous that I’m determined to come back – and then on to the Stuart Highway: which may as well have been our home all the way to Darwin.
Heading out of SA almost as soon as we got there, we stopped in Woomera for a night, a post-WW2 military base used by Australia, UK and more recently the US and Japan for missile tests, astronomical studies and other assorted (some top secret) activities. There’s still a US listening station in a nearby salt basin. The town has a museum about the area’s history, and it seems like the place was cheered whenever old V2 missiles were brought in or the Cold War heated up, then ignored as soon as peace broke out. Something’s still going on though: for 250 km north of here travellers are warned not to venture off the highway and into the protected area.
Next stop: Coober Pedy, yet another mining town but opal-based this time. To be honest, opals seem to be all that’s here – but it was another stop on the Priscilla trail! We stayed in Radeka’s Underground Hostel for a night – weird!! – then moved above ground to the Opal Inn Caravan Park (pub and bottle shop attached, who could refuse?), checking out the sunset along the way.
Most of the hotels and hostels in Coober Pedy run trips around the area for $30-40, but in the interests of a little money saving we decided to make our own way round. We avoided Crocodile Harry’s (underground home) due to rumours of his breast-hugging antics and headed for the Old Timers Mine, a definite highlight. The town itself is pretty dead, but this is a hand-dug mine found when a local family was creating their underground home (also open for viewing). After seeing sandy heaps all over the landscape – you can fossick for opals if you fancy – it was fun to see what they had to do before digging machines came along.
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Breakaways Reserve
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Another fantastic side trip was to the Breakaways Reserve just north of town: on the Priscilla/Mad Max trail again! There are some amazing landforms and a weird ‘moonscape’ plain on offer – remember the ‘shortcut’ in Priscilla? Bartertown in Mad Max 3? – as well as the Dingo Fence. It’s a dirt road so watch out for the bumps, but the camcorder was definitely out when Rob’n’Jen launched into an all-singing all-dancing rendition of Mamma Mia while speeding along the track.. then Who Let The Dogs Out, naturally. Loads of fun and games, and worrying times for the ‘sane’ one in the back!
To infinity and beyond…
And so we continued on our travels, further up the Stuart Highway and into the Red Centre. Watch this space!