South Australia (Outback Region)

During summer, you should make the most of the small swimming beach at the end of Young Street to escape the dust and heat – the old wooden pile crossing, now a footbridge, and a hundred-year-old jetty, all that remains of the port, make good perches for fishing. The chief source of information is the Wadlata Outback Centre, at 41 Flinders Terrace (Mon–Fri 9am–5.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am–4pm; $7; tel 08/8641 0793), which is well worth a look in its own right. Audiovisual technology, didgeridoo loudspeakers and a giant model of Akurra, the Dreamtime snake, are deployed to explain Aboriginal bushcraft and Flinders Ranges’ creation myths, while geological and mining displays give a scientific perspective; tales of the hardships suffered by the nineteenth-century explorers Eyre, Sturt (and his boat), Stuart and Giles fill in the background.

If you still feel like exploring after Wadlata, drop in to the Homestead Park Pioneer Museum at Elsie Street (daily 9am–5pm; $2.50) centred around a log-built sheep station building. The 135-year-old homestead has been moved 100km from Yudnapinna and filled with well-restored period furnishings; in the grounds is enough farm and railway machinery to keep an enthusiast enthralled for several hours, along with animals, birds and a photographic museum in a vintage railway carriage. Nearby, the School of the Air, at 59 Power Crescent (10am on school days; $2 for a 30min tour), invites you to listen to a lesson conducted over the airwaves. The interaction is pretty lively and might help explain the better-than-average academic record for students in remote areas who use the school. You could also take a look at the ETSA power station (free tours Mon–Fri; tel 08/8642 0737), which produces forty percent of all South Australia’s electricity, or watch the sunset illuminate the Flinders mountains from the water tower lookout on Mildred Street.

Flanking the north side of town on the Stuart Highway is the new and ambitious Arid Lands Botanic Gardens (Mon–Fri 9am–5.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am–4pm; tel 08/8641 1049; free), a showcase and research centre for regional and international desert flora, the slow-growing nature of which means that the garden’s full splendour has yet to be realized; however, a closer look will reveal a surprising wealth of species. The rain-gathering, solar-powered information centre, shop and café underline the ideals of the garden as an ongoing ecological project.

Attractions

• AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL WORKSHOPS AT PORT AUGUSTA One hour guided tours are held twice a week at these large and important workshops, taking the visitor over the locomotive and wagon workshops where overhauling and repairs of the equipment occurs. Also in the complex are the machine shops, car building, welding, painting and electrical workshops. A tour of the apprenticeship training centre is included.

• HOMESTEAD PARK PIONEER MUSEUM This is a railway and pastoral museum featuring the historic Yudnapinna Homestead which was transported from its original site to Port Augusta and re-built as a museum. The 130-year old homestead is fully furnished in period style and is the only original log homestead in the state.

• McLELLAN LOOKOUT This vantage point, on the site of Matthew Flinders' landing-place in 1802, offers excellent views of Spencer Gulf, Port Augusta's power station, and the Flinders and Bluff Ranges. A stone cairn marks where Flinders stepped ashore on March 10

• ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE BASE The Port Augusta base is one of fourteen in Australia and provides medical services to people in remote areas of the state. Visitors have the opportunity to see first- hand the work of this uniquely Australian Aero Medical Service.

• SCHOOL OF THE AIR Visitors can see this radio education for students in the remote outback. There is an audio visual display and a viewing bay to observe teachers working with geographically isolated students via the two-way radio, broadcast through the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The service began in 1951. In 1991 it became a primary and secondary school, part of the Open Access College of South Australia.

• WADLATA OUTBACK CENTRE This interpretive centre features a series of hi-tech displays with the themes of The Greentime (ancient geological development), Aboriginal Heritage and Culture, Early European Explorers, Transport Development, Communications Development, Modern Technology and Development and a variety of other themes. Each is depicted with audio visual means, storyboards and imaginative display methods.

• WATER TOWER LOOKOUT This tower dates from 1882 and is surrounded by beautiful gardens. It was originally built to provide Port Augusta with a reserve water supply. There are excellent views of Port Augusta, the gulf and the Flinders Ranges.

Practicalities

Both the bus terminal and train station are a short walk from the shops, banks and post office along narrow Commercial Road. The bus terminal is at 21 Mackay St (all services tel 08/8642 5055), and trains pull in at Stirling Road (tel 08/8642 6699).

If you need maps and information beyond what’s available at the Outback Centre, try the helpful NPWS at 9 Mackay St (tel 08/8648 5300) for park maps, info and permits; or if you’re a member, the RAA, at 91 Commercial Rd (tel 08/8642 2576), provides very good road maps. 

Local tours can be arranged through Butlers Outback Safaris, 2 Woodstock St (tel 08/8642 2188), who offer one- to seven-day 4WD trips to the Flinders and Innamincka. If you fancy a trip on the back of a bike, call Flinders Ranges Harley Rides (tel 08/8642 6401; around $50 per hour). Or you can rent a car from Budget, 16 Young St (tel 08/8642 6040).

The shambolic Port Augusta Backpackers, 17 Trent Rd, and the friendly Flinders Hotel, 39 Commercial Rd, offer central budget beds. Several motels, such as the comfortable Poinsettia, 24 Burgoyne St, are grouped along the highway just across the gulf. Closest campsites are also in that vicinity – the Shoreline Caravan Park at the end of Gardiner Avenue and the Big 4 Holiday Park, junction of Eyre and Stuart highways.

Hotels are the place for meals and entertainment, but opening hours are vague and often depend on demand, which can be almost non-existent during the week. The Transcontinental, Port Augusta’s weekly rag, will have details of anything happening around town. Seafood addicts should head for the fish shop at the seaward end of Marryatt Street, which sells fresh fish, as well as fish and chips; at the other end of the street is King Po Chinese restaurant. Along Commercial Road you’ll find a few cafés for lunch and snacks, with vegetarian options at Basic Foods, while Barnacle Bill’s, on Victoria Parade 3km from the town centre, has pretty good value seafood and all the salad you can eat. The central Commercial Hotel boasts an à la carte menu at weekends; Hotel Augusta serves meals with a fine view of beach, mangroves and the distant Flinders Ranges.