Skytrek Tours, Willow Springs Station in the Flinders Ranges: the Outback region of South Australia.
About 20 kilometres north of Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges is the turn off to Willow Springs Station. A seventy thousand acre pastoral property set around a homestead built in the 1920s.
The owner Brendan Reynolds has long had the run of the place. He grew up here, the eldest of eight kids who were all taught on the property:
"This is the old school room here at Willow Springs. There were eight children in our family and six in the other family. So a total of fourteen kids so they built their own school room and we used to have School Of The Air."
While there's the occasional reminder of the building's long distance educational role it now offers accommodation for the adventures who make their way to Willow Springs for the legendary Skytrek four wheel drive tour. That means Brendan still has the run of a place he's called home for forty-seven years.
As you follow the track, reminders of the property's primary source of income are everywhere. With nearly five thousand sheep to attend to Brendan's work is never done. But today he's taking a break to show us signs of habitation which go back long before European settlement:
"So this is where the engravings are?"
"Yes Lisa. We're talking about the era of the pyramids. That's how old these engravings are. Thousands of years ago these markings were chipped into the rock wall. By whom, we're not sure."
"Do you know what they actually mean?"
"We're lead to believe that a race came to Australia back in the era of the pyramids or about that time. They were in Australia for only a short period of time - might have been ten years - might have been a hundred years. But it's only a short period of time. And it appears that they came in from the Broome area in Western Australia. They came down through the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and back out through the top end of Queensland. But there are a lot of other theories too. The Adnyamathanha have got theories. These particular circles represent corroboree sites or animal tracks. It could be anything."
Out here standard concepts of time are washed away like the creek beds which form much of the four-wheel drive track. Soon the ridges offer clues to the geological story of this part of the Flinders. It's a story pegged out and explained in the maps given to four-wheel drive enthusiasts.
The ripples on the slabs of rock tell an ancient tale dating back to when all of this was part of an inland sea. The seabed hardened in layers. Brendan says the layers on the western and eastern flanks of the Flinders were rammed upwards by incredible tectonic forces.
"This is the beginning of where the push started. And so the ground started coming up together and eventually the middle of the ranges eroded away."
The Bullock Bush, a favourite with the sheep, gives way to more open grazing country and soon we're entering a key part of the pastoral story on the Skytrek trail. Where the outback sense of humour is always present.
"Well you can certainly disregard the 'For Sale' sign. This place, Moxans' Hut is definitely not for sale. It's a classic piece of outback history that highlights the loneliness of those who came to live out here in places like the Northern Flinders to open this country for grazing."
Moxans' Hut was built in the late 1890's and gives some appreciation of the hardships endured by people like Joseph Wills - the man who first took on the pastoral lease at Willow Springs to breed cattle for bullock teams. Up until 1962 this pug and pine hut was home to one of the outstation workers who Brendan remembers as a kid:
"He was bush happy. For the simple reason that he was so isolated that they almost went mad I think. But when I first arrived with my father with the mail and the bread etc I would be avoiding this guy and the same with him avoiding us. He wouldn't speak very much. But after spending a bit of time here I can remember he would still have his elbows on the window of the vehicle, as we'd drive away. He'd started to come round after about three or four hours."
"And then he'd have to wait for another week for you to come back again."
"That's correct."
The flat country gives way to Skytrek's version of Monument Valley otherwise known as The Little Bunkers. These form part of the outer eastern rim of the Flinders Ranges and they're a sign of things to come.
Soon we approach the peak of this 70-kilometre trip around Willow Springs Station. At nine hundred and twenty three metres Mount Caernarvon is the highest point available to self-drive vehicles in the Flinders. It offers an amazing view to the rim of Wilpena Pound and the surrounding Flinders Ranges. Up here you realise why this is called the Skytrek Tour.
"Did you build this rock cairn?"
"No. That was built in the 1850's when the white man came into the area as a surveying point."
At the rock cairn it's time to get our bearings and sign the visitor's book before making our way back to Willow Springs.
The Skytrek Tour is a self-drive adventure and costs $40 per vehicle. It takes six hours. Willow Springs offers a range of accommodation options. To book contact 8648 0016. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
