Blog Review: Ooldea Joining of the Rails 100th Anniversary

Hi Alan

Thanks for that and it was a fantastic event.

The West Coast is full of history and there are many places that you can spend days exploring.

Edward John Eyre was another great Australian Inland Explorer and the west coast has countless important places that he visited.


All the Best



Stephen

Another great report/blog Stephen. You and Fiona certainly know how to immerse yourselves in the areas you visit. Not much slips by you. A fantastic report and a great resource for anyone thinking of visiting this area.

I was particularly happy to see you following up on a bit of the history surrounding the explorer Richard Thelwell Maurice, a pioneer of South Australia and another of our ‘lesser known’ explorers and a particular favourite of mine.

Between 1896 and 1903 Maurice explored much of South Australia and the Northern Territory from his base at Fowlers Bay SA. In 1902, with Surveyor William Murray, Maurice crossed the continent from Fowlers Bay to Wyndham writing a remarkable anthropological and exploratory record. He discovered and named places that are still significant to many of we outback travellers today. Tallaringa Well on the Anne Beadell Hwy is one such location.

You mentioned and thanked Murray Collins of Ceduna in your blog. Murray’s brother, Neville Collins from Adelaide has researched the life, times and travels of Maurice and has recently (self) published a book on Maurice - “The Unknown Explorer”. It’s a great read and gives a great insight into the man, the times and the outback. It’s definitly one more for the reading list.

You've seen more of the Great Victoria Desert than most Stephen so you know that Maurice and his men must have had nerves of steel to head into a harsh and totally unknown environment.

There is some further background on Maurice here; http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=218

And for anyone interested in purchasing Nevilles book, he can be contacted on his email;
nevillecollins@adelaide.on.net

Thanks for the effort you’ve put into this one Stephen. Happy travels,

Mick

.
Thanks for the heads-up Stephen.
We could not be there but your blog virtually put us there.

To make it easy for some others, here is a link to your blog.

G'Day Stephen,
Great blog as per usual. Wanted to get out there for this but work commitments prevented us from attending.
Did the whole track years ago from Tarcoola to Kalgoorlie ( before ARTC got a bit snippy about it) and had a look at the old memorial and many other interesting historical places along the way. Back then the memorial was showing signs of it's age.
Who knows one day they might open it up again for responsible travellers.
Cheers Scott.