Round Australia Road Trip #24
When Elaine commented on my Longest Trains in the World post about the size of everything in Australia, I made it my mission to find as many big things as I could on the rest of our road trip. Australia is well known for its “big things”, both natural and man made, and the drive east from Streaky Bay to Port Augusta revealed a surprising number of over-sized objects.
Not far from Streaky Bay is an outcrop of large granite boulders at least 1 500 million years old, which have been exposed in their current form for around 100 000 years.
Known as Murphy’s Haystacks, their name came about after an agricultural expert saw the rocks on Murphy’s farm from a distance and mistook them for haystacks.
There are more granite outcrops at Wudinna. Mount Wudinna is the second largest monolith in Australia; only Uluru in the Northern Territory is larger. It rises out of the wheat fields like a sentinel.
A walking track through the bush leads to the base of the rock and from there signposts mark the easiest way to the top.
It’s not just the rock that is large; the 360 degree view from the top of the mountain is expansive. Turtle Rock, another granite outcrop, can be seen nearby.
The swarms of flies at Mount Wudinna are large too. We spent most of our time waving them away and trying not to swallow them.
Wudinna is also the home of the Australian Farmers’ Memorial, an eight metre high statue made of local pink granite which celebrates the spirit of the Australian farmer.
The town of Kimba may be tiny but it is renowned for two big things. It is geographically located halfway across the continent as the crow flies and it is the home of The Big Galah.
The last stop on this part of the drive commemorates a big journey – the circumnavigation of Australia by Matthew Flinders between 1801 and 1803. On 11 March 1802, Flinders and his crew sailed into Spencer Gulf in their ship Investigator. They landed close to where the city of Port Augusta is now located and climbed up these red cliffs. Matthew Flinders was the first person to use the name “Australia” for this vast continent. What would he think of the Big Galah?
What’s the significance of the Big Galah Carol? Is that a local bird? If so, it’s a shame it doesn’t eat all those pesky flies!
Galahs are native to Australia. They are members of the cockatoo family and are found all over Australia. They live in large flocks and are very cheeky. Unfortunately they don’t eat flies.
I’m not sure why the residents of Kimba decided to have a big galah. I read somewhere that on April 1 one year, someone put a big egg underneath it.
It’s a fascinating place your country! Why are there so many flies though?
They breed in animal droppings and there are 20 million cows creating large cow pats every day. Perfect for flies. I googled it and read that there are 30 000 species of flies in Australia. That’s a mind boggling number. You might be interested in this web site. http://www.viacorp.com/flybook/fulltext.html
As always stunning photos. But those flies! 😮 I’ve never seen so many!
We haven’t either. They were incredible. I could have done with one of those fly nets that day.
Oh, those flies! My first visit to Sydney was plagued by flies that attacked your nose, eyes and lips (seeking moisture I guess). I walked around doing the ‘royal wave’ most of the time! Seriously love those haystacks!
The flies in Sydney, or any other place we’ve ever been, are nothing compared to these. We’ve never seen swarms quite like it. You should have seen us doing a dance trying to shake them off before we got back in the car. It must have looked funny.
Yes, I can imagine. They were thickly clustered on that backpack. Any ideas as to why there were so many?
No, but it’s probably a seasonal thing. I’ve never seen them that bad before.
Those flies are amazing! The only time I’ve seen them like that was when we were at the Snowy Mountains in summer time – we did the funny dance to get them off us before getting into the car a well 😉 I love The Big Galah! 😀
Wow on every photo. I thought our bugs were bad. Geez, that’s a lot of flies, but I’m guessing the scenery was well worth the dancing required to keep them at bay. 🙂
I have never seen flies as bad as this. It was definitely worth putting up with them to climb to the top of this rock though.
Extraordinary landscape, Carol ! Not so fond of the flies 🙂
We weren’t either. I have never tried so hard to keep my mouth closed!
Wow, those rock formations are most impressive. I think for the flies you need one of those hats with the corks around the brim, like Crocodile Dundee had. 😃
Ha ha! I doubt that anything would keep those flies away. They were very persistent.
I believe so.
Oh wow! What a great collection of big things! Murphy’s Haystacks are particularly impressive and once again it makes me think that nature is amazing. Not so wonderful, of course are the swarms of flies – urgh.
We’d been making fun of the oldies with their fly nets while we were in the north, but I could have done with one that day.
I am going to continue looking out for big things, just for you!
I think those fly nets sound a sensible buy! I’m looking forward to more big things.
You never know when the next one will come along!
Yay!
Who forgot the Aerogard?
You’d be forgiven for thinking that but we actually did spray liberally when we first got out of the car. These flies are brutal. Nothing stops them, nothing!
Jeepers.
We are lucky they didn’t carry us away. lol!
Waw, what beautiful surroundings & natural created rocks! They all look so huge, large & apart! Sorry to hear about those enourmas flies, you could do with netting in front of your faces! Huge!
The flies were disgusting, but the rest of the day was fantastic. Thanks Sophie.