The Telegraphic Message

Less than a decade after the pre-eminent explorer John Stuart had completed his survey of a south to north route through the centre of Australia, the South Australian Government in 1870 set about building an overland telegraphic link to connect the bottom and top halves of the continent. 

At the time the 3000 kilometres of overland telegraph was an amazing engineering achievement. Messages were transmitted 24 hours a day using Morse Code and 12 relay stations along the way. The settlement of Alice Springs was founded as one of these stations. The restored telegraphic station at Alice Springs is a wonderful monument to the importance of communications especially at a time in history when a letter could take 3-4 months just to get to England and of course as long again to receive a reply. The marvels of a telegraph, even although very costly, guaranteed getting a response in as little as 24 hours!

Nowadays communications using the Internet cover almost every corner of the globe, are virtually instant, include realtime images and above all do not cost a fortune. 

Route of the overland telegraph

Morse Code sender key

The restored Alice Springs telegraphic station

Gorgeous Gorges

After recent days of misty rain, cloud filled sky and persistent ground fog, Bazflyers awakened at Alice Springs to a clear blue sky. A perfect day to swap ZK-BAZ for a Hertz 4x4 and go exploring the western hinterland.

A change in travel mode...

...and change in visual perspective

Simpson Gap

Standley Chasm

 

Ellery Creek, 'Big Hole', is a great place to swim and relax. 

Lunch time while fending off the ever present outback fly.

A Town Like Alice

Those of a certain vintage will recall the 1956 British drama film "A town like Alice" based on the eponymous 1950 novel by Nevil Shute. Somewhere in my early teens I saw the movie which indelibly imprinted in my memory database an impression of the town of Alice Springs along with a desire to one day go there. It might have taken over half a century of time for that day to come around but this afternoon, following a smooth 2-hour flight north from Coober Pedy, the Bazflyers arrived at Alice Springs.

Preparing to leave Coober Pedy

Flying over Australia's centre normally reinforces a stereotyped image of an arid red earth territory. However, that is not how it looks at present. Recent rains are transforming the land. Water courses beginning as creek sized tributaries snake across the earth amalgamating into broadening ribbons of greenness that seemingly stretch endlessly to the horizon. Those in the know keep telling us the land is greening like it has not done for many long years. 

Rivers of green

The town of 'Alice' boarders a normally dry Todd River, so dry that the annual regatta is a spectacle of boat races made possible by the motive of multiple legs. So replenishing have the recent inland rains been that for the Bazflyers visit to Alice the Todd River had a seldom seen water content.

Down town Alice Springs

Oh, for the record 'Alice' didn't match up to anything like my long-held impression of the place, its a leafy laid-back small town and seems like an interesting place to explore over the next three days. Three days of "Living next door to Alice"......!

Desert Fog

Who would have thought of there being ground fog conditions in central Australia? Well, that is precisely why the Bazflyers turned-around after about an hour on route to Ayres Rock (Uluru) and flew back to Coober Pedy. As it turned out this was a good decision. The fog never did lift and later in the day gave way to thunderstorms and heavy rain.

Unusual weather conditions have a moist westerly airstream off the Indian Ocean penetrating well into the heart of the Australian continent. Resulting heavy rains and flooding are playing havoc with many people's travel plans. A young couple standing next to us while watching the sunset last evening had been delayed at William Creek by road closures due to flooding. Then there were the burley biker characters next to us in the Shell roadhouse as we breakfasted on bacon and eggs this morning. They arrived from a night some way up the road having being delayed by heavy rain and were planning on a long-day ride to be back in Melbourne on the weekend for work.

Rain is a seldom occurring nectar for the normally arid and hot Australian centre. Dry rivers and creeks are flowing. For some children living in the outback this will be the first rain they will have ever seen.

The present cluster of weather activity causing the Bazflyers to stop longer than planned in Coober Pedy is forecast to move on further east by tomorrow morning. Certainly looks like we can then safely make it onto Uluru and like many other travellers at this time, adjust our plans for a couple of days behind schedule. 

PS: A line of weather on the way resulted in another turn-back to Coober Pedy while trying to get through to The Rock (Uluru). This means we will not get to see Uluru on this trip and instead head direct to Alice Springs tomorrow and hopefully back on schedule.

Coober Pedy

'Biggles' the travelling mouse. He apparently stowed away in ZK-BAZ prior to departure from Taupo.

Red sky in the morning at Coober Pedy

Breakaway's near Coober Pedy in the late afternoon

A local Coober Pedy identity explaining the finer detail of Opal quality.

Overground Underground

Today's flight was from one mine to another, overflying several others along the way and traversing miles of outback in-between. The almost straight line flight path began at Broken Hill, a mining town that in its day had arguably been the single richest silver and zinc deposit on the planet. 

 

Mining in Australia is a significant industry and contributor to the Australian economy. Olympic Dam was spotted a bit over an hour after leaving Broken Hill. This mine is a major oxide copper gold deposit producing copper, uranium, gold and silver. It's is the biggest uranium producer in Australia. A major airport development supports the mine that hosts an integrated metallurgical processing plant.

An enormous pile of black overburden associated with the open cut Prospect Hill mine was visible miles ahead as were other lessor mining developments. 

Historically, mining booms have also encouraged immigration to Australia and Bazflyers destination, the opal mining centre of Coober Pedy with its Greek population, is a typical example. A town where people live overground and underground.

Return to Broken Hill

The history of Broken Hill is marked with bitter and protracted strikes, particularly the “Great Strike” of 1919 which lasted 18 months and led to the 35-hour week for miners and improved health and safety conditions.

The “Big Strike” was Broken Hill’s greatest industrial battle. It lasted from May 1919 until November 1920 and involved thousands of mine workers and their families who struggled to survive, mainly on rations of potatoes, onions and jam.

The women of Broken Hill played a pivotal role in the strikes which shaped the unique industrial history of the city, offering physical and moral support to their mining fathers, husbands, brothers and sons.

Not well known is the role played during this strike by Sir Sidney Kidman, later to become Australia's largest rural property owner. At the time of the strike Kidman had a butcher shop in the Main Street of Broken Hill which served as an outlet for his then growing cattle empire. As the strike progressed he felt for the miner's families and would provide fresh meat at no charge to the wives so they might feed their children. The understanding was never abused and when the strike finally finished and the miner's returned to work, Kidman's butchery was rewarded with all the town's trade. Today the butchery still occupies the same premises in the Kidman Building down the end of Broken Hill's Main Street.

Miners are immortalised in much of Broken Hill

This is the third visit by the Bazflyers in ZK-BAZ to Broken Hill and hurrah for an interesting new find; Bells Milk Bar. Step back to the '60s for delicious coffee and a pretty mean double malt. Rumour has it that the owner 'Pearly Bell' would stand out in the street until it was devoid of a single soul before closing for the night.

Mary O'Brian

Half way between Lismore and Broken Hill is the small settlement of Walgett and a the Bazflyers chosen place to refuel and stretch the legs. It's a typical Australian outback town in the middle of nowhere; with houses clad in faded paint over weathered sunburnt timbers. A happy place ravaged by time, sun, wind and rain.

The great Australian outback has forever been a tough land. A place where travel often involves many tedious hours on hot dusty red roads. It's not surprising then that right from the outset outback people embraced aviation and one of those people was Mary Philomena O`Brien

Mary was born in Walgett in 1940 where she grew up on the family property at "Coolabong" on the Barwon River. After finishing school she gained her private pilot Licence at the Walgett Aero Club where she was also the first female club member. Then followed her Commercial Pilot Licence and instructors rating. 

Her first employment as a pilot was in Sydney in 1969. A few years later she was in Singapore training pilots for Singapore Airlines. Mary from the outback was a true  aviation pioneer. She was the first woman in Australia to Captain a Lear Jet aircraft. The first woman Examiner of Airmen with the Civil Aviation Authority and later as Flight Operations Manager at Bankstown airport she was the first woman appointed to an aviation operational management position.

Mary passed away in her '60s. She had flown over outback Australia, the deserts of Iran and Africa, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, the Rocky mountains, and the jungles of Guatemala. She had piloted more than thirty different types of aircraft from the low speed fabric variety to high speed jets. 

Her legacy lives on through her students, many of whom are still active in aviation. Meanwhile, back in her small home town of Walgett the local community has named the little airport terminal in memory of their by own Mary O'Brian.

Mary O'Brien airport terminal, Walgett NSW

Australian outback looking unusually green after a solid drenching of rain