Wirraway Homestead

We had the wonderful opportunity to assist a Christian ministry, MMM (Mobile Maintenance Ministry) by installing a kit kitchen in one of the staff houses on site at Wirraway Homestead near Strathalbyn, just south east of Adelaide, South Australia.
 

We rolled up in the Robbiebago to this marvelous campground.  The setting is absolutely a dream. I just love it. Much of it comes literally out of a old western movie set that shot on location in the nearby town. More importantly than the surrounds is to the ministry that goes on here where they host horse based camps and musters here for the schools and the community of SA. 

We camped with the Robbiebago right outside the house where the kitchen needed work. We could use the house bathroom & shower as the occupant (the bride) was at her parent's home doing last minute things for her wedding which was to be the weekend after we were to leave.

We like to turn up for our volunteer work on the Friday or Saturday so that we can spend the weekend familiarizing ourselves with the people, location and the ministry. It is a great opportunity to go to the local church and we nearly always feel welcomed and right at home despite the many varieties of church services we encounter. This time we went with the founding director, Peter & his wife to their large church some 40 minutes away. It was called Coromandel Uniting Church. It surprised us to travel so far but it was a beautiful drive through some awe inspiring hill countryside and the church family service was fantastic and God glorifying. Peter and his wife also invited us back to a baked dinner at their lovely house and garden near Strathalbyn.

However we were there to work and on the Monday morning we started to unpack the flat boxes and see how to put the kitchen together. First off the walls needed a bit of cement rendering. Over the next week there were all kinds of jobs that needed work in the kitchen. Obviously this was Rob's department. I had a lot of time to selfishly indulge in my explosion box crafts and to explore the campsite and the nearby town of Strathalbyn where there were some delightful craft shops including a marvelous little quilting shop with a cafe within the shop. 

 

Each day we had lunch and dinner with the campers. This was a highlight of our days there. I don't know the name of the school that was visiting at the time, but they were noisy as kids will be but very well behaved, so much so, that we were pleasantly surprised to discover that this was not a private school but a public school up for their yearly year 6 camp. The teachers have such a great rapport with the kids that respect is evident on both sides. Even the ex principal came back from retirement to do the camp with them, he loves them so.

Peter (left) wanted to 'encourage' Rob to get back to work

Back to the kitchen, work continued along at a steady pace. Peter popped by often to see if Rob needed supplies or additional tools. Some parts of the job went easily and others so so easily. as jobs often do. Bit by bit it all came together and by Friday the kitchen was finished; drain pipes re routed and connected, tiling fixed and grouting done etc. It wasn't all work all week.We could set our own timetables. It was still very cold in the mornings and Rob likes his sleep, so many mornings he didn't start working until something like 9 o'clock. We even took a few hours off on Thursday when our ex pastor, Fred and his wife Helen, came by for a visit and lunched with us up at the camp dining hall. (Did I mention the food was great and so much of it!)

Rob in the finished kitchen

By the Friday the kitchen was all finsihed and then it was up to me to clean up after Rob. (Gee, that sounds familiar: I think all my married life has been spent cleaning up after him and the kids!)

Yet another of the wonderful building around the place

 We decide to leave on Monday as per our normal custom of having church at the beginning and at the end of each ministry stay. This freed us on Saturday to go for another drive around the countryside and this is when we went to Murray River Bridge and surrounds which were covered in the last post.

Sunday was back to Coromandel Church with Peter & Nina again. We headed east on Monday after a delicious morning tea with Nina. Peter was unable to free himself from Wirraway just at that time which was a pity. But we will certainly be back next time we come through South Australia.

Strathalbyn

As part of MMM (Mobile Maintenance Ministry), we were asked to consider helping at a campsite near Strathalbyn which is just a tad more than half an hour north east of Adelaide. (More on the campsite work in the next blog entry!) 

It is a lovely drive through the northern hinterlands of Adelaide anytime but especially through the bright autumn colouring of the magnificent trees in the area. Whispering Wall at the Barossa Reservoir was a great place to try out the unique acoustic capacity of the dam wall. I expected to be able to hear Bob, but I did not expect the clarity of actually understanding clearly what he said on the opposite of the wall. With me being 80% deaf and relying on lip reading, I was blown away.

Strathalbyn would have to be one of the prettiest, old world, unspoilt towns in SA. It is large enough to have all facilities you need locally and it is less than 45 minutes into Adelaide proper. It boasts one of the loveliest town parks anywhere with a bridge that my husband & I  found aesthetically pleasing and my husband in particular found structurally interesting.

Whilst staying here for 8 days , we took a day off to go sight seeing up to the Murray Bridge area. We went on a loop up to Mannum and the across the ferry at Murray River and back home a different way. I think we were there about a month after the huge damaging floods of 2010 and it was still very evident in the areas surrounding the river.

 The wet grounds at Murray Bridge.

Overlooking the Murray River. The bulk of the foreground body of water is not usually there. 

The river generally stops at the trees with just a creek running this side - see the little boat wharf in the foreground.

Here you see the two ferries passing each other.

They would be about 1/4 the way from the right of the photo above this one.

The above are just 2 photos of the many wind powered sculptures that are alongside a private driveway on the road somewhere between Mt Barker and Strathalbyn. All the sculptures are actually working and turning. You can actually see the legs of the 'boy' turning round and round.

This is one place I can heartily recommend so don't visit Adelaide when you go to South Australia. Do make sure to tour the surrounding areas outside of Adelaide if you have a car.  Strathalbyn, Harndorf and Murray Bridge and the Murray River are all well worth the effort. I would love to come back and explore more especially around the river... a house boat holiday sounds ideal to me.

South Australia's beautiful Yorke Peninsula

We well well on our way down Yorke Peninsula after stopping at the lovely Black Point where some shacks are truly waterside with the tide coming right up to the foundations. So on we go south along some lovely coastline and we stop at Port Vincent for lunch and then on through Stansbury and then onto Edithburgh where the huge wind farms are. We stopped and looked at them just from the road since we already saw them in great detail at Snowtown.

Now we start to go inland to Yorketown and Warooka Dam and straight onto Innes National Park. After such long distances in the west between points of interests or even just towns, it is amazing to us how quickly we are at the southern most peak of Yorke Peninsula in just a few hours driving.

Another we are noticing as we travel Australia, is that national parks are NOT really national. You still have to pay per state at least to visit national parks. There is no national park fee that covers all national parks. Innes is actually an expensive park to visit considering there is very little conveniences and such available for your buck.We paid $24.50 entry and 1 nights accommodation which only included a dump toilet - no water, no shower, no anything else! very disappointing. After settling the Robbiebago into its spot, we went walking to the nearest beach but first we have to walk through what is basically a private dump. Actually if you were a tourist brochure writer you would describe it as a quaint old fishing village.

These old shacks are in poor condition and the yards surrounding them are dumps with rusty old cars and water tanks and stuff strewn around the place. on top of all this, these places are privately owned... since when do people own prime beach side property inside a National park. Surely the government should buy them out and revert the land to nature and allow everyone to enjoy this area, not just a few 'privileged fisher folk'! There is a sign on the beach proclaiming it to be the nesting area of a rare bird... but the locals are allowed to drive for nearly a kilometre along the beach! I just don't understand the national parks thinking!

As we were only staying here the one night and there was only one other camper at our camp spot, we decided to unhitch the Robbiebago and go driving and exploring the other beaches of Innes asap the next morning. The many beaches are lovely though and some with great lookouts.

The shipwreck part is fascinating and one can still clearly see 2 shipwrecks without having to even go right down to Ethel Beach. Soon it is time to hitch the van back to the car and head out. Dunns Point and Warooka are stopping points. We didn't hug much of the west coast at all. We decided to camp at the Maitland Showgrounds. The trip is often smokey as many farmers still burn the stubble in preparation for the next part of farming. All that smoke must be bad for the environment and the carbon release in the area. I have no idea how this method compares to the alternatives. I leave that to someone else who is more knowledgeable in this area! So onto the little copper town of Moonta with its potholed roads for a wonderful pub lunch and then a visit to the delightful and very interesting Wallaroo Museum and the Moonta Pier which is basically our last stop in Yorke Peninsula.

We are glad we went and we truly loved our stay in Black Point, but it is not a place I would aspire to visit a second time.

The underground church at Coober Pedy

I have been really looking forward to visiting Coober Pedy and I am not disappointed.

It is like being in an alien land with various sized ant hills all over the place. It is very hot, dry and dusty.

We stayed in the grounds of the famous Catacomb Church which is fascinating and well worth visiting. We were doing some volunteer work for the church as we worked in the mornings as it is much too hot to work the afternoons. 

After a leisurely lunch, we tend to indulge in a bit of sightseeing such as the Breakaways - a luna /alien landscape that have featured in many movies including Mad Max.

Faye’s underground house (dug out entirely by ladies by hand! And complete with an indoor swimming pool and games room) and the Old Timer’s mine.

Quiet times are spent chatting, playing games or in my case making some explosion boxes for craft.

On Anzac Day, Rob &Julie stayed in their respective beds while Richard & I went to the Dawn Service which started with coffee or tea with a shot of Whiskey was available for all comers along with wonderful homemade Anzac Biscuits. After the short but emotionally charged 20 minute service we were all invited to stay for breakfast of bacon & eggs, and they did a fantastic job of it too! Way to Go Coober Pedy RSL. We stayed and had breakfast with 4 others that we had met previously.

Then back to get ready for church at the Catacomb Church. They sing songs for 15-20 minutes then they break for coffee and fellowship for about 15 minutes then back into the church for the bible readings, prayers & sermon plus another song in conclusion. I also go me some more lovely sunset photos and a sunrise photo too whilst here. I love the colours that occur at these times of the day.

Though it was an interesting experience, it is not my sort of town.

Jolly Hard Graft

Arrr.....urgh.... ooohhh... I am sooooo sore. Lifting lino is jolly hard work. Today there was a working bee arranged to remove the lino at the manse in Roxby Downs. I said to Richard and Julie (fellow volunteer BCA Nomads) “If this is what to expect from being a Nomad then I quit!” They quickly assured me that it is rarely as hard as this. As Bob had a bad night’s sleep due to his cold and having very noisy neighbours didn’t help, we decided to attend the working bee around mid morning. Unfortunately only three locals turned up for the working bee plus the four of us nomads. The lino which has been down for at least 10 years was laminated and glued to concrete. It took the 7 of us 8-10 hours hard graft to get it all up. Still it was great comradeship. Though it was school holidays and also some would have working, I was surprised that there were not more locals at the working bee. It would have been great to work alongside others and get to know them too. I don’t think the locals appreciate the benefit that working together in such working bees does to help build the community within the church. It appears that many people would much rather hire a contractor to do whatever job needs doing - not that they would think to necessarily increase their financial commitments to cover such expenses. Oh well, though we are sore and tired, we are satisfied and happy with a job finished and have cemented relationships with each other. Now we look forward to not just a day off tomorrow being Sunday, but we Nomads have made an executive decision to have the day off on Monday too! And boy, do I need it! Oooohhhh. Where is my masseuse?