awesome land of gorgeous gorges

They call it the outback, and it's a long way from the city. It took two days travelling to get to the Flinders Ranges. One day by train from Melbourne to Adelaide, half a day to Port Augusta by bus, then another four hours driving to reach our destination.

For a nature buff there's lots to see and experience - wildlife, rocks, gorges, sky, trees, shrubs and flowers.

The easiest animals to see are the large mammals. They're generally shy though, and you have to be quick or lucky with the camera.

Euro, Emu

Without binoculars you tend to hear birds more than see them.

Then there are the reptiles, spiders and insects. Even in winter, the flies were so bad, it was either a case of wearing a  head net, or using the  'Aussie salute' - waving your hands in front of your face to stop the bush flies landing on your face or mouth.

unidentified, well camouflaged spider

unidentified ant

Common Glider (Trapezostigma loewii), male

There are also feral animals: rabbits, goats, cats and dogs. These do a lot of harm to native wildlife and vegetation.

In the Flinders Ranges there are rocks so ancient they help us to understand the distant history of the planet. Most of the rocks were laid down in the sea 500 to 1500 million years ago.

Millions of years later, about 60 million years ago, the mountain plateaux we see today were formed, and continue to change and evolve.

There are a profusion of trees, shrubs and flowers - all evolved to flourish in a dry arid or semi-arid climate.

Clockwise from top right: Echium lycopsis - Salvation Jane,
Asphodelus fistulosus - Onion Weed,  
Rumex vesicarius - Ruby Dock - introduced weeds.

Clockwise from top right: Eucalyptus socialis - Red Mallee, 
Acacia tetragonophylla - Dead Finish, 
Callitris columellaris - Native Pine, Solanum quadriloculatum- Tomato Bush

Olearia pimeleoides ssp. pimeleoides - Showy Daisy Bush

Pilotus obovatus var.obovatus - Silver Mulla Mulla 

Solanum quadriloculatum- Tomato Bush and Senna artemisiodes - Desert Cassia

It rarely rains, and everywhere you see dry creek beds. In the extremely rare occurrence of torrents of rain, the creeks and rivers fill up and there are floodplains as far as the eye can see. When we were there we saw little water.

Dry creek beds lined with River Red Gums - Eucalyptus camaldulensis

Drinking water is obtained from tanks that collect rain water.

Along the Hans Heysen trail, Parachilna Gorge

Dry dusty road

For other uses of water, for sheep and cattle and for washing, bore water is pumped from below the surface of the earth.

Aboriginal people lived in the Flinders Ranges for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived, and left behind numerous examples of rock art.

taken from Flinders Ranges Research 

When white people settled, they cleared the land for mining, pasture and stock, and many trees were chopped down to provide timber for use in building and in mines.

Today part of the Flinders Ranges is conserved and protected as a National Park, and tourism is a profitable industry. But we mustn't get complacent. Mining and development companies are formidable lobby groups.  Brown coal is still mined in nearby Leigh Creek. So hopefully the area will stay wild and natural for a long, long time.