Black Jack Get-A-Way at Ororroo: Ron relaxes in the Outback region of South Australia

Ororroo is a pretty Southern Flinders town, steeped in history - from the old butter factory to the heritage churches scattered throughout the back streets. Spend time here and two things become readily apparent - the local's fascination with that feisty bird - the 'maggie' (it features on signs everywhere) - and the role-played by one particular family in opening up this part of South Australia.

Ororroo is an aboriginal word meaning 'meeting of the magpies' and it's long been a meeting place for the Parnell clan ever since Richard Thomas Parnell or "RT" as he was known established his blacksmiths shop here back in 1880.

RT's business interests grew rapidly - as he ventured into the transport industry first making buggies and wagons. Later the family's trucking empire serviced cattle stations north of Goyder's Line and cereal growing communities to the south. RT's great grand son, John Parnell spread the tentacles of the Parnell trucking empire into the remotest parts of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Today he's taken the foot off the pedal so to speak - with a more relaxed life on the family farm north of Ororroo. But it's his kids who continue to take the wonders of Ororroo to the wider Australian community - like son Nick who recently featured on Postcards.

Now Nick regularly plays at the Blacksmith's Chatter - the refurbished workshop where workers once made the Parnell wagons, buggies and later maintained a fleet of Bedford trucks. It's been given a complete facelift courtesy of another Parnell dynamo, Susan Woolford... the great great grand daughter of old "RT". Today it's a conference centre and performance space with murals recording the Parnell story. Nick and other performers regularly use the old Parnell Wagon as a backdrop for the annual 'Rhythms and Woollbales Concert' - the brainchild of 27 year old sister Susan.

These are a couple of young South Australians keen to promote their patch, and with Susan as my guide, the story of what was once one of the State's most northern towns comes to life. It was in this country that the early explorers recorded the last remaining pools of surface water so Ororroo became an important staging post for forays into the interior.

Susan Woolford: "People travelling through based themselves here before going further north. It became a spot for people to rest up for the week for the long journey ahead."

From the town lookout you take in the vast expanse of the Walloway Plain and the Black Jack Hills in the distance. Here just past Goyder's Line - water is gold and the locals went to extraordinary lengths to store as much of it as possible sometimes with comical results.

Susan Woolford: "They built a big weir and they got a bloke out from Germany to put in a set of floodgates so that every time the creek flooded they would let the silt down so it wouldn't fill up. The bloke came over, set it up and then went home and we had our first big flood and they tried to open the floodgates and they wouldn't open. The bloke had put them in upside down and back to front. And from then on the reservoir has just been filled up with silt so it evaporates very quickly because it's not very deep."

Despite the occasional setback, the town's grown and continues to - thanks to passionate young locals like Nick and Susan - who've done their father proud.

Susan's love of local and family history shines through in everything she does - whether it be the Blacksmith's Chatter or Nana's Home - the Bed and Breakfast she's established in town, where Nana Parnell lived in up until the early 1990s.

Reminders of the Ororroo and Parnell stories are everywhere and Susan wouldn't have it any other way.

Susan Woolford: "If you don't have any family around, you don't have any history so you've got to keep that history alive. People forget what the older generation do for them."

For your stay in Ororroo at either Maggies Nest B&B or Nana's Home or for a seminar or event at the Blacksmiths Chatter contact Susan on 0427 581 302. If you have any further questions please email info at postcards-sa.com.au

Black Jack Get-A-Way
Magpies Nest B&B
Nana's Home B&B
Blacksmiths Chatter Conference Centre
Contact Susan Woolford
Ph 0427 581 302

Published 15th March 2009