The Gulf Road with Mark Bickley: In the Mid North region of South Australia
The brave Cornish miners at Burra were exceptionally good at digging out the copper at the Monster Mine but getting the ore back to Adelaide on jinkers and bullock wagons in the late 1800s was no mean feat.
At first, the bullockies followed a couple of different routes from Burra Burra, as it was called, to Gawler and on to Port Adelaide. But the trip was a hazardous one often hampered by flooding so a shorter path needed to be found. The more direct route to the ships waiting in Gulf Saint Vincent and inshore at Port Wakefield became known as The Gulf Road.
Today it cuts through classic mid-north farming country where you'll find local cockies like Kevin Roberts checking their newly sown crops. Kevin knows this country can get pretty tricky when the winter rains come and as lad he heard some tall tales about the Gulf Road.
“They used to talk about how the copper carters used to get stuck in the mud,” Kevin told us. “And I was told one team completely disappeared. But we've worked on that country for fifty years and I've never found them yet.” he laughed.
On parts of the road between Burra and Balaklava and onto Port Wakefield you'll still find reminders of the early days. Like the stories told in Marie Harrison Johnson's intricate mosaics featured in Balaklava's Federation Wall. There’s also a plaque just out of town, which marks the spot where bullock teams had to contend with a treacherous bog come winter.
Because they couldn't go around places with names like Hellfire Creek and the Devil's Garden the muleteers and bullockies decided to go over them.
To see how they did it call into the Balaklava Museum and ask people like Dick May.
“The only way they could overcome their situation at the time was to lay pine logs down,” said Dick. “They called it the corduroy road.”
It’s said traces of the native pine section of the Gulf Road remain hidden beneath the fields and sand dunes separating Burra and Port Wakefield. To see a piece that's still intact, head to the Balaklava Museum.
Balaklava Museum
The Corduroy Road, Urlwin Park, Short Tce, Balaklava
Contact 8862 1741Balaklava Museum
Main museum located at Centennial Hall, May Tce, Balaklava
