Parachilna and Leigh Creek

 Having already discovered that we had seen most of the highlights of Parachilna yesterday, we decided to drive 60km North to Leigh Creek and check out a few spots along the way. Our drive to Arkaroola tomorrow will take us along the same road, but we won't be stopping along the way sightseeing.

Along the way we see a sign to the historic town of Beltana, only 12km off the main road, so we decided to go and have a look. 

The main road into town

Once in town there is a newly constructed "park" with a board telling us about the history of Beltana. Like many of the towns in this region, Beltana revolved around a copper mine, "The Sliding Rock Mine" which was a further 20 km out of town. It was also on the rail line of the "Old Ghan". Population in Beltana peaked at 390, with 70 houses in the town in 1883. The current population is around 30, but there has been a lot of activity to attract tourists with new visitor facilities that include the area where we found this sign. All of the buildings in Beltana are privately owned.

The Old Royal Victoria Hotel built in 1878 and closed in 1958, now a private residence

The Old Police Station

Smith of Dunesc Mission (a base for a travelling mission, approved by the Church of Scotland and funded by Mrs Henrietta Smith of Dunesc, Scotland)

Railway Station opened in 1881, now a private residence.

Not all of the buildings are in pristine condition

A town with an interesting history, and it seems residents who are keen to keep it alive.

On the way back to the highway we pass what is described as the Afgan Well. Unfortunately there is no information at the site that explains its origins, but a substantial stone tank and water trough remains.

From what I could find on the net, it appears that the Beltana Pastoral company, in 1866, imported over 100 camels and Afghani drivers, which formed the basis of transport in the area for decades.

Beltana was declared a State Heritage Area in 1987. 

Next stop was Leigh Creek, we are not sure what to expect but Beltana was a real surprise.

As it turned out, so was Leigh Creek. We arrived to a ghost town, admittedly it was Sunday, but there was no-one anywhere.

Foodland Supermarket car park (the only car is ours)

The tourist information centre looks like it has been abandoned, half of the shops are permanently closed, but in a triumph for the Labour Government, the have excellent electric vehicle charging stations, but no customers.

It seems the SA Goverment is forecasting a surge in electric vehicles in parts of the State that are barely economically viable, maybe they should be spending money on roads that electric vehicles could travel on. 

Our trip to Leigh Creek was short lived, because there is no tourist information and no-one there on a Sunday. We did see a turn off to the Aroona Dam on the way into town, and from earlier research on the net, it looked like it might be a nice place for a picnic lunch.

Built by the Electricity Trust of SA in the late 1950's the dam was built to supply the original town of Leigh Creek and Leigh Creek Coalfield. Since 2016 it is not used for anything but recreational activities as the coal mine is gone and the town uses desalinated water from bores. Despite promises of developing the area into a unique visitor experience with kayaking and a dam filled with fish stock to make it a fishing haven, all we saw was a very poorly corrugated dirt access road, and some new BBQ facilities and toilets at the top. Not a kayak to be seen or any reasonable boat launching facilities.

Dam wall from the water side

Access road with dam wall

Nice new BBQ Facilities, but no one here on a Sunday

We had a nice picnic looking over the dam.

Being the number one attraction in Leigh Creek there were a few visitors, many with caravans, but none stayed long.

After lunch. it was time to head back to Parachilna. Back down the 6km of poorly maintained road, we were back on the highway heading back to our haven. Our curiousity about the famous fossil fields got the better of us, and despite access being only available to tour groups and then on only certain days of the week, we thought we should at least go and have a look.

This is as far as we got. There is camera surveillance and all sorts of warnings not to go past this point. Not quite in keeping with the "Grettings- welcome to this land" message on the sign

At least at Parachilna we know we are welcome, will be comfortable and well fed, so we move on.

Perhaps a last look at Parachilna "township" is in order. because we may have been a bit hasty in our initial assessment. After a 10 minute walk we had seen the town.

This is the main street. The pub is at the far end before the comms tower.

The highlight of this place is the wonderful Prairie Hotel. We had another great meal tonight which would rival many highly priced city restaurants.

Off to Arkaroola tomorrow.