Catching Yabbies in the Murray River

We have had some wild weather in these parts over the last 6 months.  Power outages, fallen trees and storm damage have been a regular occurrence but, as with most things, there is also a silver lining somewhere to be found amongst the misfortune.  In this case, the rainfall has been very good throughout the south eastern parts of Australia in the second half of 2016 resulting in water catchment dams and reservoirs now being full or near full and water flows through the river systems are strong.  Good water flows in the rivers means that Australia's freshwater crustacean, the Yabby, comes out in large numbers.  The Yabby is somewhat like the North American Crawfish.  They look just like a miniature lobster but are in actual fact about the size of an average ocean prawn.



Australian 'Yabby'

With word of yabbies being 'on the bite' we decided to head to the sleepy little town of Kingston-on-Murray (on the Murray River) to try our luck.  So it was early in the morning of what was forecast to be a hot 35°C Sunday that we set off with our four 'Opera House' yabby traps (they look a little like the Sydney Opera House when opened up), and some old roast chicken carcasses to use as bait.

We drove to Kingston on Murray to drop some Yabby traps into the river

A quick 200 km drive up the highway from Adelaide towards the South Australian Riverland and we were at our destination just before 10am with traps in the water shortly thereafter.  You are legally entitled to have 3 nets each in the water at any one time so with two traps each we kept everything legal!

While we waited for the yabbies to 'sniff out' the bait, Heather did some metal detecting along the river bank and I went and bought a Sunday newspaper to read under a nice shady tree.

About an hour and a half later, Heather returned with a 1950 Kangaroo Penny that she had detected below the ground at the base of a big old River Red Gum tree.

A 1950 Kangaroo Penny (this is not the actual coin Heather found but is an image I got from Google)

After cleaning the coin a bit, we decided to check our yabby traps/pots.  When we first started pulling on their ropes, they were heavy and we started to get all excited!  Unfortunately the weight was due to what must have been nearly 100 small (5 - 10cm bait fish size) European Carp that had swarmed into each trap to try some chicken.  This fish is yet another sorry example of a species introduced to Australia that has run-amok and is now choking out the native river fish species.  Adding insult to injury is the fact that they do not make for good eating so why were they introduced in the first place?  Anyway, due to carp being an officially designated pest it is illegal to return them live to the water so we tipped the contents of our pots onto the bank of the river and let the sun do the rest - that was our good environmental deed for the week.

Luckily, amongst the mass of bait fish was a yabby or two per pot, so we picked them out and put them in our collection bucket then dropped the empty pots with their remaining bait back into the water for another hour.  We repeated this cycle a couple more times, complete with the carp culling, before calling it a day and returning home.

A couple more than a dozen Yabbies to take home for dinner!

Not sure who looks more worried - The Yabby or Heather?

Grant alongside the river with a couple of Yabbies pulled from a trap

Remember that if you click on a photo it should enlarge a bit for you - it will make the yabbies look bigger too!

In all we brought home 14 yabbies which is enough to know whether we have a taste for them or not.  If we like them we sure know where to go to get some more.  Next time we might even take the caravan and make a full weekend of it rather than a 400 km day trip!

That's all for now.
Stay safe and stay tuned for the next edition of WTF? - Where are The Farrows?

Raking for Blue Swimmer Crabs

The weather report for the upcoming weekend was good.  The moon was new and the tide times were favourable.  All systems GO!  I rushed home from work on a fine Friday afternoon, dropped and swapped the business pants and shirt and got into my best camping attire - good old flannel shirt and multi-pocketed cargo pants.  A half hour later we had the caravan hitched up and we hit the road for the short 70 km journey to Port Parham just north of Adelaide to catch some of the local in season delicacy - Blue Swimmer Crabs!

Port Parham is a well known crabbing location that just happens to have a free caravan and camping site right on the beach - perfect!  The only catch (no pun intended) is that it is a first come, first served location - no reservations.  It must have been meant to be as we were lucky enough to secure the last open site with a couple more disappointed campers arriving just a minute after we pulled up.  Once we got set up it was not long before we were seated in our outdoor chairs enjoying a relaxing beverage to watch the sun going down.  It was a bit breezy but at least the wind kept the flies away!

You can launch a boat and drop a few baited crab pots into the water and wait, or, as was the case for us, you can go 'raking for crabs'.  Simply wait until just before full low tide and start the long walk (probably 1km or more) with a crab rake in one hand and towing a storage tub tethered around your waist with a couple of metres of rope behind you until you reach the sea grass interspersed with a sandy bottom in knee deep water.

Heather with rake, tub and tether rope.  All ready to go crabbing!

All 'zinced up' for protection from the reflected sun and making the trek out into the shallows .  Note that even in the distance there is no water in site!

The crabs bury themselves in the sand at the edge of the sea grass so that is where you start raking.  If and when your rake makes contact with a buried crab they will respond by lashing out at it with their nippers.  They will typically latch onto it which you not only feel but you can also hear - it makes a 'tink, tink, tink' sound as they strike out and nip at the metal.  It also helps when the weather is calm as it was while we were out there.  With no wind the water does not have too many ripples - amazing what a difference it makes when you can see what you are doing!  Anyway, when the crab strikes you flip the head of the rake over while he is still hanging onto it (imagine you are twirling a lacrosse stick).  The only thing left to do is turn and shake him off into the tub you have been towing - if the tether rope is still attached then the tub should be floating behind you!

Below is a photo of a crab amongst the sea grass waving his nippers menacingly at the rake (nice underwater photo courtesy of my GoPro camera).

Act of defiance from this Blue Swimmer Crab

The beautiful blue colouration of these crabs is how they got their name.

All that is left to do after the 'lacrosse twirl and shake' into the tub is to check and measure them to ensure they are legal.

This legal sized male crab was a keeper.

The crabs you catch need to be of a certain minimum size and regardless of size, all females with eggs must be returned to the water.  We each had a sizing gauge in our tubs to make sure anything undersized was released.  The guy in the photo above was a keeper!

Once we got back to camp it was time to put the crabs to sleep by placing them in ice water for a couple of hours.  Once dormant, you cook them up in some boiling salt water.  Rather than describe the whole process here in the blog, I recommend you watch the short video that Heather made where we do the whole 'how to catch and cook blue swimmer crabs' thing.  Click on the link below to watch our weekend unfold!  It has some pretty good underwater video of tour weekend - the GoPro is great for this kind of thing.  It is a regular documentary if I do say so myself!

It was sunny and calm but not hot, yet even though we suited up, wore hats and smeared on the zinc cream to protect ourselves, we still ended getting pretty burned as a result of the sun reflecting off of the water.  Despite this we really enjoyed our quick weekend getaway.

That's all for this installment of WTF? - Where are The Farrows?  Be sure to follow the link below to watch the video on YouTube - it really is a good one...would I lie to you?

https://youtu.be/ET-0CDbTFxc

Flinders Ranges Wrap-up

I bet you weren't expecting to hear from me this soon after the last post took three months to generate - two issues in three days and it's not over yet!

Our 10 day trip was great!  The better than usual rainfall in the months before we arrived had made things unusually green and lush for this part of the world.  The wild flowers were blooming, the magpies, cockatoos and parrots were noisily going about their spring business in and around our camp site and there was no shortage of kangaroos and emus to be seen.  We even came across a few herds of feral goats whenever we ventured further north.  On the sunnier days the reptiles were out too.  I even did my Steve Irwin thing and grabbed a couple of these critters to show Heather - right up close and personal!  The evenings were cool enough to warrant making a fire to sit around for a couple of hours before heading to bed but the nights didn't get overly cold.  To get to some of the sights we did plenty of dirt road driving which highlighted just how much dust can get into everything without actually revealing where it got in from!

To keep this short I have included some photos that I hope you find at least a little interesting.

Scenery

Typical scene in the Flinders Ranges

Wilpena Pound is the centrepiece of Flinders Ranges tourism

We did a few hikes while we were there.  The most strenuous one was to the top of Rawnsley Bluff.  This 5km trail was well sign-posted but quite a steep climb.  The view from the top was worthwhile and all the more interesting given the fact that we are able to say we looked down upon a helicopter that was taking some folks for a tour!

We climbed to the top of Rawnsley Bluff

Grant sitting atop Rawnsley Bluff

While out and about seeing the sights we came across an ochre wall.  Ochre is a naturally occurring soft rock that can be found in a number of different colours and is prized by aboriginals as the raw material with which they make ceremonial face and body paints. Simply grind it up and add a little water and animal fat to make into a paste.  This wall was a beauty as it contained several colours in the one location. 

This Ochre Wall is over 50m long and about 3m high - the mother lode!

Purple, white, gold, yellow and brown veins of ochre are easily accessible in the wall

Flora

Early September (spring time in Australia) was the perfect time to see an abundance of wild flowers blooming.

Floral Emblem of our home state of South Australia - Sturt's Desert Pea

Sturt's Desert Pea up close - blood red and glossy black

The green and gold of Australia's national floral emblem - Golden Wattle

Fauna

We saw plenty of kangaroos, emus and rabbits especially as the sun was going down - not a good time to be driving.  I have posted plenty of photos of kangaroos and emus before so will not bore you with them again.  Instead, some scaly cold blooded locals for your viewing pleasure.  Warning: Steve Irwin moments ahead!

Up close with this Bearded Dragon

These guys are no danger to people - bugs and beetles are their main diet 

CRIKEY! Lets just give this little fella a belly a rub before we let him get on his way!

These are Shingleback Lizards - more commonly known as Sleepy Lizards

Well that's about it for the Flinders Ranges - it is a great place to visit.

I have decided to clear my backlog of WTF? - Where are The Farrows? blogs via two or three short posts before I head back to work next week.  In the New Year I will get back to something closer to real time posting of blogs of our new adventures - at least that is my New Year's resolution.  Let's hope I can stick to it!

Aboriginal Cave Paintings and Rock Engravings

I started this blog in September just after we got back from our trip to the Flinders Ranges but life got in the way, as it tends to do, and it is only during the Christmas break that I have found the time to finish it off.  So, my apologies for being tardy with the blog and best wishes to you all for the Christmas and New Year period!

Across the duration of our visit to the Flinders Ranges we took the time to stop at four locations where aboriginal rock paintings and/or rock engravings were accessible to the public.

Without a Rosetta Stone of sorts it would be pretty much impossible to decipher the meaning of the images and patterns seen on the rock walls found in the region.  Fortunately, information boards have been located fairly adjacent to each site to help the viewer to understand what they are looking at.  Unfortunately for you, the blog reader, you are likely to be unable to read the descriptions of the symbols on the photo of the information board - you are just going to have to trust me on this when I tell you what appears to have been going on at one of the ceremonies described by the engravings on the walls at Mt. Chambers Gorge!

Information boards assist viewers in their interpretation of the symbols seen engraved into the rock walls

The easiest to get to were the rock engravings found in 'Sacred Canyon' near Wilpena Pound.  These are just a couple of hundred metres easy walk up a normally dry creek bed from a parking lot at the end of a 12km access road.  In the photos below you can see the smooth polished rocks in the creek bed and given how infrequent the rain is in these parts it must really whoosh through the canyon when it does flow!

Heather making her way into Sacred Canyon

Deep within the walls of Sacred Canyon!

Next as far as degree of difficulty of access is concerned were the rock paintings at Arkaroo Rock.  A 1.5 km hike along a well marked trail climbs about 100m up from the trailhead to the rock paintings located under the overhang of a rock face.  A 1.5km descent trail delivers you back to your starting point.

Nice scenery along the way to the Arkaroo Rock paintings

Three examples of rock painting are located at Yourambulla Peak situated 12km north of Hawker or 50km south of our campsite.  Easy highway access but when we got there we found very little by way of trail markings.  Add to this the fact that it was pouring with rain made this art gallery quite difficult to get to.  Once we got there, although soaked to the skin, we felt it had been worth the trouble to find them.

If you click on the picture it will enlarge and hopefully you can read the sign!

Most difficult to get to, primarily due to their remoteness from our base camp, were the rock engravings found at Chambers Gorge.  These were by far the most expansive and impressive to look at.  I think the combination of the sheer number of engravings, the smooth red rock of the gorge walls that were used as the 'canvas' for ancient story telling and the stillness of the dry creek bed on the day we were there made this location our favourite.

Just one of the rock walls at Chambers Gorge used to record important events of times long ago

This place had all sorts of engravings that described communal meetings, locations of food and water sources, initiation ceremonies, match-making and good old fashioned gossip!

There were documented stories (literally carved in stone) of old men hoping to be paired up with young women, old women helping make the young ladies pretty before their big night out (by making them walk through the smoke from plum grass fires!) and telling the young girls what to expect, and of young men lurking in the shadows of these proceedings given 'ceremonial' beatings by the older men - one friend of ours has commented that this is remarkably similar to some of the parties he used to go to as a younger man!  In addition to the stories of these 'parties to end all parties', was general information exchange about where to go to get good bush tucker (food) and where to find permanent water in the district.

We found it very interesting to see the rock art and engraving examples up close - the photos don't really do these places justice but we thought them worthwhile to share.

If you are interested, the link below will take you to a 6 minute video on YouTube made by Heather about some of the rock art and engravings we saw.  The video contains more details and better pictures than I was able to provide here.  It also tells you about a steep hike we took to get to the top of Rawnsley Bluff at Wilpena Pound.

https://youtu.be/qJawMIh3qKs

That's all for this installment of WTF? - Where are The Farrows?  Hope you liked it.

Feral Feast

Australia is well known for its unique wildlife.  For example, the kangaroo and emu which appear on the Australian Coat of Arms, are found nowhere else on the planet.  There are plenty more like the koala and platypus, etc. that could be listed here but would take some time so I will not expand upon these any further.

The Kangaroo and Emu appear on the Australian Coat of Arms.
Neither of these critters can walk backwards so they are perfect to represent the ambition of a nation to always move forward!

While the native fauna are mostly still doing OK (I won't mention the extinct Tasmanian Tiger), there are several introduced species that have thrived since being released (accidently or on purpose) into the wild after the initial '...it seemed like a good idea at the time' reason for their introduction was no longer important.  Some of the worst examples of animals 'gone feral' include:

• Rabbits: Introduced to provide some 'sport' for the landed gentry.  Well, what a surprise when they proceeded to breed like rabbits and consume any vegetation that sheep, cattle and the native herbivores would typically eat thus creating exceedingly difficult grazing conditions in an already difficult farming environment
• Foxes:  Again, these were introduced for some 'sport' but also to combat the now out of control rabbits).  While they likely picked off a few of the millions of rabbits running amok out there, they also enjoyed feasting on many of the small native marsupials (Australia's furry warm blooded native species) that call Australia home
• Cane Toads:  Purposely introduced from Hawaii as a natural predator of the cane beetle that was damaging sugar cane crops in northern Queensland.  Having no natural predator themselves in Australia they have since spread across the entire tropical top end of the country decimating all sorts of water and land based species along the way
• Cats:  Domestic cats gone feral over the last 200 years are now deemed to be the single largest menace to native birds, furry creatures and lizards in the country.  Their natural hunting instinct means they catch and kill pretty much anything that moves that is in their weight division.

Less harmful but feral nonetheless, goats, donkeys and camels can also be found in abundance roaming the Australian outback unchecked.  We didn't see any donkeys or camels on this trip but we did see several herds of feral goats in the northern areas of the Flinders.

Did you know that Australia has the largest population of camels anywhere in the world?  If you didn't, now you do.

After this fairly long introduction I now come to the subject of this post - The Feral Feast!

ADVERTISING:  Roadside billboards as you approach the town of Parachilna advertising just some of the menu choices that are available to the discerning diner just a few kilometres up the road.

The meat while 'Feral' is fresh, i.e.: this is not a true 'Road-kill Grill'

LOCATION: The Prairie Hotel is a pub in a tiny town called Parachilna, located on the western flank of the Flinders Ranges.  One could mount a convincing argument that the town is so small that rather than describing the pub as being IN Parachilna, it is more appropriate to say that the pub IS Parachilna.

The Prairie Hotel is in Parachilna (or) The Prairie Hotel IS Parachilna 

This place has made quite a name for itself due to the items that appear on its regular menu.  The signature plate is called the 'Feral Mixed Grill' which is comprised of a Kangaroo Fillet Steak, an Emu Filet Mignon and Camel Sausages!  While the camel is the only actual feral animal on the plate in the Feral Mixed Grill, some poetic licence allows the kangaroo and emu, being untamed, to grace the same plate!  If you want to go truly 100% feral you can also select a plate featuring slow cooked goat meat.

HOUSE SPECIALTY:  I'll have the FMG or 'FERAL MIXED GRILL':  I chose to have the Feral Mixed Grill for lunch while we were there.  Heather, who has never been one for wild meats, went with the Chicken (for chickens).

Handy little road signs are provided to help you identify what you are eating

The meal was very tasty although I was not so sure how to feel about having just eaten the animals on my national Coat of Arms.  The Kangaroo Fillet Steak was great, the Camel Sausage was tasty but to tell you the truth (as I always do), the Emu Filet Mignon didn't do too much for me at all - I was glad to have an ice cold beer at the ready to chase it down with!

Well that's enough for today - I need to go and have a little lie down to let the belly settle.  WTF? - Where are The Farrows? will return in a day or so with a post about some of the Aboriginal cave paintings and rock engravings we visited during our Flinders Ranges tour.

Arrival in the Flinders via Pichi Richi Pass, Quorn and Kanyaka

Already halfway to the Flinders, the road trip for the day would be another short haul.  This meant there was plenty of time to take in the sights along the way.  The main points of interest en-route were the drive from the coastal highway up to and through the Pichi Richi Pass to the town of Quorn and then Kanyaka homestead before arriving at our destination.

The short 250 km drive left plenty of time to enjoy the sites along the way

Once you make the right turn off of the main highway near Port Augusta towards Quorn you are faced (literally), with the Flinders Ranges.  The ascent from sea level up and over the first set of the ranges begins immediately.  The 39 km route is known as The Pichi Richi Pass.  The name Pichi Richi is believed to come from the region being a traditional source of 'pituri', which is a mixture of leaves and ash chewed as a stimulant by the local indigenous peoples. 

Anyway... previously, as a child, I had been to this part of the country during a family holiday.  While I could vaguely remember having been here before, most of the details of my memories of the trip had definitely become dimmer with the passing of the 40 or more years since then.  Strange though, was the strength of my memory of The Pichi Richi Pass.  Not for the beauty of the twisting, winding drive through the ranges with an old steam train line running parallel to that same twisting road, but for a far more purile reason.  I seem to recall the sign proclaiming the location of the peak of the pass having had some modifications made to it which appealed to my young boy mind of the time.  Instead of a road sign informing you of your arrival at the summit of the PICHI RICHI PASS, the talented local poets of the region had modified the sign, much to my amusement (and to that of others I am sure), to read:

ICHI ICHI ASS

Now, 40 or more years later, here I was with my eyes peeled looking for this sign so that I could point it out to Heather and enjoy an immature giggle once again.  So it was to my great disappointment to find (or not find as it turned out) that the sign at the summit of the pass no longer exists in either its proper or modified form.  Personally, I think the local shire council should ensure that the 'modified' sign is always in place to become a tourist attraction in its own right as some things just stick in the memory better than others.

Shortly after not experiencing ICHI ICHI ASS (that's a good thing I suppose), we rolled into the town of Quorn.

The Quorn Railway Station

Quorn is the inland terminus of the Pichi Richi Railway and is home to the Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society.

The steam loco that powers the Pichi Richi Railway tourist rides from Quorn to Pt Augusta and back is called 'The Little Coffee Pot' and is very popular with rail enthusiasts

The volunteer society manages a museum and operates heritage steam and diesel trains on the restored 39km section of track between Quorn and Port Augusta.  The line was built in 1878 and is the oldest remaining section of track of the former narrow gauge 'Ghan' railway.  'The Ghan' was named in honour of the Afghan cameleers that helped open up the semi-arid and desert regions of central Australia using herds of imported camels as their beasts of burden from the mid 1800's.

We walked around the town and had some lunch at the local coffee shop, kept in the old style of nearly a century ago, and then it was time to move on once again.  Quorn is a nice little town and well worth a short visit.

Next stop was the ruins of the former Kanyaka homestead.  A sign of just how tough the pioneer farming days in these parts were is the large number of ruins found in the Flinders Ranges.  Each of the ruins represents somewhere that brave people settled, built themselves homes and tried to make a go of it.  A couple of good years must have given real hope to many with many homesteads expanded from their humble beginnings to become something quite grand.  Unfortunately the good years turned out to be anomalies with extended droughts breaking the banks and then the spirits of most including several of even the largest pastoralists.  This was also the fate of Kanyaka Station.

Kanyaka station was established in February 1852 by an English immigrant, Hugh Proby.  Given the very dry nature of this part of the country, it was tragic and ironic that he drowned having been swept from his horse when crossing a swollen creek while trying to herd a mob of cattle to safer pastures during a thunderstorm.  Subsequent owners grew the station during 'the good years' until it was one of the largest in the district with up to 70 families living and working there.



Ruins of Kanyaka Homestead.

The good rains from earlier this year re-creating the green pastures that fostered the cruel false hope that was held by pioneers of the region.

As mentioned above, several consecutive bad years then followed with severe droughts resulting in massive losses of stock.  Eventually the station was abandoned.  Due to the stone construction used by the pioneers, many of the homestead buildings survive as ruins to be viewed by tourists like us today (Tip: if you click on the photos the images will enlarge a bit and hopefully provide a better view of things).

We had enjoyed our leisurely journey thus far but it was time to get to our destination and set up the caravan for the next week or so.  Under an hour later we arrived at Rawnsley Park Station Caravan Park.  The station is still a working farm but it now supplements its farming income (which is at the mercy of the weather as per Kanyaka story above) with some steadier trade - tourists, particularly a genre of tourists known as 'Grey Nomads' (for North American readers, think 'Snowbirds').  Grey Nomads are typically people that have retired and now spend their time travelling around the country chasing warmer weather than they have at home with their caravans in tow.  Rawnsley Park originally set up a few caravan sites on their property to allow a few Grey Nomads to establish their own base-camp (more comfortable than tent camping but cheaper than the limited number of motel rooms in the area) from which to explore the Flinders Ranges region at their leisure.  This has obviously worked well for them as the caravan park has expanded to 50 powered sites and dozens more unpowered sites now available.  There are also several cabins available for those hoping to have all of the comforts of home upon arrival without having to tow it behind them along the way.  The old woolshed has also been converted into a quite fancy restaurant serving foods grown on the farm as well.  Me thinks the tourist income may be overtaking the farming income!

This episode of WTF? - Where are The Farrows? has come to an end with our safe arrival and set-up complete.  I leave you with a photo of the view of Rawnsley Bluff, part of Wilpena Pound, from our caravan at sunset on the day of our arrival.  This is what we saw whilst getting the campfire started and enjoying our first 'sundowner' of the trip.

Not a bad view with a cold one in hand and a warm campfire in front of you!

In subsequent posts (to follow soon), I will share the highlights, history and some of the views experienced during our adventures of the days that followed, including the view from the top of Rawnsley Bluff - that's right folks, we climbed up there and the view was magnificent!

For some video related to these as well as some of our other adventures, follow the link to Heather's YouTube page below.  If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe to her YouTube channel while you are there and you will get notified each time a new video or short movie is posted.  Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQFqbEM1KEM7lPW_QZkMmng

10 days in the Flinders Ranges: Day 1 - Adelaide to Bowman Park

A couple of weeks ago Heather and I completed an excellent caravan towing course to learn a few things specific to safely towing, manoeuvring and reversing a relatively heavy and long trailer.  We both thought the course was great value for money as we had a lot of fun and came away with new skills, competencies and probably most importantly, confidence when it comes to towing our 'mobile home' behind us.

Eager to put our new skills to the test we planned and packed supplies into the caravan ready for 10 days of camping in the Flinders Ranges located approximately 450km north of our home in Adelaide.

Departure day arrived and we set off at around 8am.  An easy first day was planned just in case highway towing turned out to be not so straightforward, with our target being a free campsite situated near the town of Crystal Brook in South Australia's mid-north about half way to where we would base ourselves in the Flinders.

Travel for Day 1.  An easy 200km for the first day.

I am happy to report that the drive turned out to be completely event free and was a good first outing to get a feel for how the tow vehicle performed and how the caravan behaved being pulled along behind with other highway traffic overtaking us and transport trucks passing by in the opposite direction.

The campsite we stopped at is called Bowman Park.  The local council allows free stays of up to 48 hours for folks in self-contained caravans or motorhomes - we just needed to stay somewhere for the one night so it was perfect for us.  There ended up being 5 other self-contained caravanners there overnight so we weren't alone but neither did we feel crowded.  Whilst free, donations are welcomed so we put $10 in the box to go towards upkeep of the grounds and the facilities that are provided.

Bowman Park has been many things throughout its history.  The area was first used by Aboriginal people long before white settlement due to the presence of permanent spring water and an ochre pit.  Following the arrival of European settlers the area was first explored in 1839.  The small creek was named Crystal Brook and the first official pastoral holding covering 560 square miles (358,400 acres or 145,000 hectares - huge regardless of the units used to describe it) was established in 1847 and was known as 'Crystal Brook Run'.  It was used for pastoral and farming purposes for 38 years until 1885.  Tough times befell the place and it has since been used for a number of various purposes including:

• Engineering & Water Supply: 1885-1960
• Youth Camps: 1962-1999:
• Speedway: 1960’s
• Rodeo’s: 1970’s
• Reptile, Flora & Fauna Park: 1990’s

Local volunteers have been putting a fair bit of love into the place over the past few years and it is a great location for an overnight stop.  Bowman Park is now used by locals and tourists as a place to relax and unwind. It is currently classified a “Passive Recreation Area & RV friendly Park".  One of the main farm buildings - it may have been the woolshed, has been restored nicely and is available to host wedding receptions and other functions.

Beautifully restored Woolshed at Bowman Park now used as a function venue

The park has a resident peacock that was apparently dumped at the site about 20 years ago.  He must have liked the place as he has not left since.  He struts around like he owns the joint (which he pretty much does) showing everyone that will look at him what a handsome rooster he is.

Heather feeding the colourful 'Captain Peacock'

After we had gotten ourselves settled in for the day Heather took the opportunity to do some metal detecting around the old homestead and building ruins.  No coins or significant relics were discovered but she did find an old brass garter belt fastening clip and a rusting belt buckle in fairly close proximity to each other.

Who knows what led to this pair being found together?

Never ones to let a complete lack of facts get in the way of vivid imaginations conjuring up a juicy story, we quickly decided that these items must certainly have belonged to one of the farmers' daughters and perhaps a handsome young farm hand...(this is where your own imaginations can continue developing the story if you feel so inclined).

The next morning we hitched up the caravan again and set off for our base camp for the next week or so - Rawnsley Park Station Caravan Park, located in the shadows of Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges.

Stand by for the next installment of WTF? - Where are The Farrows? where we get into the Flinders Ranges via the Pichi Richi Pass, the town of Quorn and the ruins at Kanyaka homestead.

To see some video of our time at Bowman Park follow the link below to a short video on YouTube that was put together by Heather.  If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe to Heather's YouTube channel so that you get notified whenever something new gets posted.

https://youtu.be/vOBU10Qb0Oc