Manguri

The next stop (and off train experience) was at Manguri, a siding thirty minutes from Cooper Pedy. Actually, it’s a sign and a side track so trains can pass, since it’s a single track all the way from Port Augusta to Darwin. Nothing else, not even a shed. The old Stuart Highway takes you to Cooper Pedy, but it’s unpaved and has a lot of corrugations (I have travelled on worse, but not in a bus).

This time we’re definitely in desert country. Cooper Pedy is an opal mining town (I think it mines the most opal of anywhere in the world). There are over two million mullock heaps there. 

Originally, millions of years ago, this was part of a shallow sea where there were many soft sea creatures. They died and formed layers. These were crushed and fossilised. The soil has a large amount of silicone in it as a result. However, this also enabled the fossilised sea creatures to become opals rather than just fossils. The amount of silicone in the rock/soil means that tunnels don’t need supporting, so 30% of the houses are built underground, where the temperature varies between 22C and 25C, rather than on the surface where temperatures are between 0C and 50C. 

Anyway, over seven years ago, I drove an RV to Cooper Pedy and visited most of the sights and characters that a small opal mining town is usually blessed with. I also went in a plane to Lake Eyre (which was pretty full), the Painted Hills, and stopped for lunch at William Creek. One of the main reasons for going home via the Ghan this time was that you can actually do this as your off train experience. Not only that, but you LAND at the Painted Hills and go for a walk. So this is what I did instead of seeing more of Cooper Pedy and its colourful characters.

Most of the country between Cooper Pedy and Lake Eyre belongs to Anna Creek Station, the biggest farm in the world. It’s bigger than Israel. Nine people live there. It’s a cattle station in the desert.

It takes about half an hour by plane from Cooper Pedy to the Painted Hills. You can see every bush below you, no matter how high you go, and there’s no water.

Then we walked around the Painted Hills for about an hour. There’s nothing except an airstrip and two drop toilets. And nothing seems to grow on the hills.

Then we flew over Lake Eyre (total time was about an hour), the biggest lake in Australia, and the thirteenth biggest in the world when it’s full. It’s only been recorded as full three times since white men came here, the last time was 1974. The salt is amazing, but it’s very difficult to take pictures in focus. Last time I didn’t see salt because there’d been flooding.

We landed at William Creek for lunch. It’s the smallest town in Australia (population 4) all owned by Trevor Wright, who also owns Wrightsair, the flying company. It has a pub and a lot more facilities than most outback towns (including 52cabins in the caravan park). It’s surrounded by Anna Creek Station, but the Oodnadatta Track goes through it.

Each year, they have a “fly in” and we were lucky enough to be there when it was starting. They were expecting 80 planes, and 57 were already there. Some were lining the street. The whole town was jumping!

The previous time I visited, they only had cider and wine and they were out of most stuff because there was widespread flooding, and the pilots were working really hard getting supplies to all the mining sites and stations that had been cut off. This time there was an unbelievable amount of choice to drink. However, there were only two meals left.

The original path of the Ghan came here. The south Australian government built a number of bridges for it.

The dingo fence is the longest fence in the world.