Rawnsley Park - Flinders Ranges
Another ‘must-do’ item ticked off. A week-end at Rawnsley Park Station. When I decided to head to Blinman to be a tour guide at the Blinman Heritage Mine, I did some research on things I wanted to do while I was here. One of these was a week-end at Rawnsley Park and dinner at the Woolshed Restaurant. TICK
I also did a flight over Wilpena Pound which ended up being the highlight for me. It was more spectacular than I imagined and I think I fell in love with the landscape just a little bit more.
As co-pilot on the flight (OK then, maybe not co-pilot, but I was in the front seat) I got a real birds-eye view of the surroundings. Corey the pilot with Chinta Air was also a great guide and the commentary was brilliant. There are so many walking trails and gorge drives in the area - our next is going to be Bunyeroo Gorge which I saw from the air. For your info, you can do these drives yourself or there are companies that can take you and includes a guided commentary.
We decided not to take the camper to Rawnsley but lash out on a unit as we only had the one night off. The unit (standard) was fine and was fully equipped with TV (which we eventually got to work thanks to somebody coming along to fix it), stove, utensils, fridge plus an electric blanket on the bed (which we didn’t need) and reverse-cycle air-conditioning. The bathroom had all the necessary toiletries. The unit had an outdoor setting and BBQs around for the use of guests.
If you are down this way, remember that the majority of the roads are unsealed so don’t worry about having a dirty car - it’s part of life here. However, we were able to give the car a quick ‘hose over’ at the caravan park with a donation to the RFDS so we did get about 50kgs of dust off.
Rawnsley Station has standard and superior units, eco-units, homestead as well as a caravan park. The caravan park has a shop selling essentials, i.e. chips, lollies, wine (as I mentioned, essentials), merchandise as well as meat plus lots of other bits and pieces. There is also fuel available and you can book tours around the district as well as within the complex, including flights. Check out their website.
Woolshed Restaurant
What can I say - it didn’t disappoint. Fabulous meal and the staff were so engaging and, like so many places in the Flinders Ranges, the views were awesome. It was a bit cool the night we went so the fire-place was lit keeping the restaurant nice and cozy and giving it a real ambience - a bit of luxury in the outback.
The restaurant has regular special lamb tasting dinners but we weren’t able to make that so we had the next best thing - the Lamb Tasting Platter for 2. It included cutlets, rump, sausages and braised shoulder and some sides but we added chips. We also had entree and dessert - both of which were fabulous. Check out their menu - it will have your mouth watering.
Why are there no photos of dessert? We just about finished it before I remembered to take the photos but we had chocolate cheesecake and caramel salted trifle! For us, this was a real special occasion dinner and we loved it. I don’t know about you, but that photo with the red dirt and river-gums looks more like an oil painting than a photo and I never tire of the amazing colours.
I love that the stations around here have opened up their properties to tourism, whether it is simply for camping or a bit more up-market. The countryside is so unique and enables everybody to enjoy a little piece of the outback. It also gives the more adventurous campers and four-wheel drivers the chance to test their skills.
Here are just a few more random photos of Rawnsley Park Station.
The longer I stay here in Outback South Australia, the more admiration I have for the residents both in the town and the properties. Most of them seem so passionate about the area and what they do including managing their kids education on-line, coping being a couple of hours away from a major supermarket and doctor/specialists. Even the pharmacy is about an hour away. So many of the things that I take for granted are just not readily available. Even phone and internet can sometimes be a little ‘sketchy’. What I have embraced though is ‘click & collect’ as well as on-line shopping. It only took about 5 days to get a Target delivery here. As the weather cools down, I needed to order a few more winter woolies - flannelette pyjamas i.e. passion-killers, slippers, beanie, scarf and a couple of extra sweat-shirts.
Cornish Mining Immigrants …
As a tour guide at the Blinman Heritage mine, I have learnt a lot about the influx of Cornish miners and their families who immigrated from Cornwell to outback South Australia in the 1860s. I can only imagine the culture-shock for these families. They arrived on a bullock-led dray to a town with no infrastrucutre - not even housing and many lived in tents for years with temperatures soaring as high as 50 degrees and as low as zero degrees. I would love to know more about how these women coped in their new and harsh environment. If anybody has any information or can point me in the right direction I would love to hear your stories so please reach out.
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to comment.
