AUSTRALIA - A six-pack of BEER and a MEAT pie
Written: Sep 21 '00 (Updated Oct 08 '00)
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| SMITHSWOODSIDE's Full Review: Australia |
Review Topic: Sights & Attractions
Review Topic: Sights & AttractionsThe Worlds longest Mail Run.
Sometimes the pressures of modern living really get to me. Everything in a rush, too much to do, too many things going wrong -its just all too damn hard.
All I want to do is escape, but where to? How about the "dead heart" of Australia, the Outback. After all, all I have to do is jump on a bus heading northwards and a thousand or fifteen hundred miles later I'm there. Simply get a job on a Cattle Station, one of those three hundred thousand to a million acre farms or ranches, and no more worries!
No more traffic, no more congestion, no more hassles and above all no more bills.
But alas, what do I discover. For the standard price of an ordinary letter to your city neighbour, at most forty five cents, the damn mail even gets delivered to the Outback. (I say at most forty five cents because in Ozz the Post Offices are all privately owned and for bulk mail they haggle with each other!).
Yes, its the worlds longest mail run, and I bet the least profitable. Terrorists, er I mean tourists can even tag along provided they book ahead at any travel agent.
So lets take a ride on what would have to be a great experience for anyone;
Every Saturday, come rain or shine, a 6-seater Aero Commander aircraft flies out from Port Augusta on the South Australian coast about one hundred and fifty miles north of Adelaide. It heads ultimately for Boulia, a tiny township in the middle of Australia's dry center, carrying a maximum of three passengers and the mail that is such a critical link between the cities and the handful of people who live in this part of Australia's outback. Bloody bills, even out here!
In the next two days we will cover what is claimed to be the world's longest mail run, a distance of 1,600 miles.
It is early Summer and even at our 8.30 a.m. start the day is already hot, with the breeze at over 85 degrees. This part of Australia is prone to temperature extremes, consistently hot and dry in the summer months from November to April and almost freezing at night around August when it is winter in this part of the world.
Within minutes of take-off we are flying parallel with the Flinders Ranges and heading into the sparsely populated Australian outback. Now Lake Torrens appears on the left. Central Australia was once completely covered by ocean, and the sand left behind when this retreated is loaded with salt. It doesn't rain much in these parts, but on the few occasions when it does, flash floods carry water, sand and salt down to this lake. The water sinks into the sand and disappears leaving the lake behind as a dry, shimmering salt-pan.
On we fly into the distance, heading out over the Great Australian Emptiness. The vegetation grows sparser. We pass countless dry river beds, some lined with trees that doggedly survive from one rare rainfall to the next, shedding most of their foliage during the droughts to conserve moisture and then resprouting when life-giving water again becomes available. Below this hostile environment is the Great Australian Artesian Basin, a strata of underground sand that holds huge amounts of water.
As we fly across this seemingly barren, uninhabited landscape, we see no houses or anything else to hint at human habitation.
We are at an altitude of only around 3,000 feet when the pilot points ahead. There, right before us, is a bitumen landing strip big enough to take a forty odd passenger Fokker F-28. This is Leigh Creek, where all 1,100 inhabitants work for the South Australian Electricity Commission, which operates the open-cut coal mine that is the township's reason for existence.
At Leigh Creek we re-fuel, loading up with more mail that will occupy most of the plane's interior. We take off again to head for the individual cattle stations. As we wing even further north, and deeper into the Great Australian Emptiness, it becomes even drier and almost pure brown sand. Sparse vegetation appears again as we land at Moolawatanna, a relatively small cattle station covering 485 square miles (three hundred and ten thousand acres, just a bit bigger than the average backyard!). There is nothing else there. No shops, no schools and not even the great Australian essential -- the outback hotel ...known as 'pub' in Australia.... These homesteads must be the loneliest places on earth - the ultimate escape?
Then on to the Moomba gas and oil field which takes care of the total requirements of Sydney and Adelaide, with the surplus being exported and some oil being produced as well. Four hundred men work here in the often 105 degree plus heat, laboring daily for 2 weeks and then enjoying two weeks rest and recreation in Adelaide.
From here we "station-hop", landing at cattle station after cattle station, dropping off mail and the occasional box of groceries or other deliveries, picking up outgoing mail and flying off to the next station.
At the beginning of "the wet" as Australians call the short rainy season in this area, it can rain a small amount as often as once every six weeks. However, it is quite unpredictable and the area can also miss out on rain completely for several years. A friend of mine remembers being terrified at age seven - it was the first time he saw rain!.
We fly on to Innamincka station, the population being large at twenty-five people, most looking after the 8,000-square-mile (half million acre) Innamincka cattle station. There's one store, one pub, and not much else. Durham Downs and Arrabury follow and then we arrive at Birdsville, perhaps Australia's most famous outback "town." It boasts a population of 70 people when everybody is "in town". An incredible crowd of 4,000 people descend on Birdsville for its one annual weekend of glory - the Birdsville Horse Races.
Its a rather thirsty area, the thirst is summed up by a sign on the wall of the Birdsville Pub "Try our 7-course meal -- a six-pack of beer and a meat pie." We spend an hour at the pub to give the pilot a break ...although he, unluckily for him, has to restrict himself to lemonade and soda water..., and talking to the locals gives us a chance to learn something about what makes this part of the outback "tick."
We find that one has to "think big" when it comes to this sparsely populated part of Australia. The Diamantina Shire (Local Government area - USA County) with an area of 55,000 square miles has 1,224 miles of roads of which 1,220 miles are gravel or dirt track and 4 miles are bitumen.
This Shire or County is "heavily populated" with a total population of 260 people, including Betoota where the population has dropped to one person who runs the Betoota Hotel and Store. Although the area can have a Summer temperature consistently over 105 degrees , and frequently reaches 120 degrees, night temperatures in Winter can be quite cold, though never freezing. The town is surrounded by 14 cattle stations.
It's time to say goodbye to the drinkers at the Birdsville pub and reboard the aircraft. Soon we are stopping at other stations just long enough to touch-down and drop off our mailbags. Just as the sun is setting on the horizon, we land at Boulia, our northern-most stopping point.
Like Birdsville, Boulia is on the very edge of the desert with its population of 260. Now this small town is our overnight stop, and staying at the Boulia pub gives us an insight into another aspect of outback life in this town.
On the way back, we land at other vast ranches similar to the ones we had called at on the way up. At each we touch down on the stations compacted-earth airstrip, drop off mail, chat for a minute or two, and move on. Again we stop at Birdsville. We zig-zag to yet more stations until our mail compartment is empty and the nose of our plane is pointing towards Port Augusta as we make our return landing.
Augusta Airways, who have the mailrun contract from the Australian Postal Service, need the revenue from the tourists who take this trip to survive.
Most of the guests who take this trip are overseas visitors who want to see what life in Australia's outback is all about. But even for Australians, the "longest mail-run" outback experience is an eye-opener and one that really gives a glimpse into the vastness that is Australia's interior.
I haven’t done this trip myself but I have been through the outback both by car and train. The whole area is indescribable - absolutely wonderful. Total, and I mean total silence as never heard before and yes you would swear you could touch the stars.
Total silence, absolutely no pollution, absolutely alone - an experience never forgotten!
Recommended:
Yes
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SMITHSWOODSIDE
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Member: Peter Smith
Location: South Australia
Reviews written: 521
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