Overland Corner Mine: In the Riverland region of South Australia

The romance of the drover's life is a fundamental part of Australian folklore. It was dangerous and difficult work moving mobs of cattle and sheep through the Australian outback but the drovers played a key role in linking the remote colony of South Australia with far off places like Sydney in New South Wales. In the earliest days of settlement they passed through Overland Corner - a line of massive cliffs along the River Murray.

“They'd stay here a couple of days,” explained local resident Ron Boyce. “They'd replenish their supplies and then they'd head off, cross the river and take their herds into Adelaide.”

When James Chambers arrived in Adelaide in 1837 he established Cobdogla Station and with the Overlanders passing through in need of a drink and supplies he convinced the Brand brothers from Kent to built a pub. It was completed in 1859 and is still one of the most historic watering holes in South Australia.

But if you drop in for a thirst quencher make sure you take a look around on the Overland Corner Heritage Trail. It’s about a three-hour walk and as you head up the hill away from the pub you soon realise people have been noodling around this part of the river for a long time.

The local aboriginal people, the Ngawait, traded in Overland Corner ochre - a trade going back some thirty thousand years. More recently, Cornish miners tried their luck with pick and shovel in a back breaking venture which lasted less than twelve months.

“There's a couple of shafts go in about thirty or forty feet, said Ron. “They are very narrow and they have no roof supports so it would have been fairly dangerous I would have thought.”

Between the miners and overlanders it’s not surprising the pub did particularly well. But to build a stone pub you need a quarry and for the Brand Brothers, thankfully that wasn't too far away - in fact it was right next door.

“I suppose if you're going to build a pub you might as well build it right next to a quarry,” laughed Ron. “These guys knew what they were doing obviously. Not only did they build it next to a quarry but also the quarry was used for quarrying quite a lot of homes around Barmera and further south. There was quite an industry here for a while.”

In fact, they were sawing through the overland corner stone until the late 1950s. In the process, they would come across fossilised coral and shells, which dated back to when the area was all part of an Inland Sea.

“If you dug deep enough and you were really lucky you might find a shark's tooth.”

It's a reminder of how ancient this land is and nearby there are reminders of the fragile hold we have on it. Further up the trail there’s the headstone of four-year-old Walter Brand - the son of one of the men who built the Pub.

The hotel is on the Morgan to Renmark Road. Copies of the trail map are available at the bar.

The Overland Corner Heritage Trail
Maps available at the Overland Corner Hotel
Morgan to Renmark Road