Flinders Rangers

Submitted: Wednesday, Oct 04, 2006 at 10:49

ThreadID: 38249 Views:2999 Replies:5 FollowUps:4

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Lachie

Just returned from a trip to the Flinders Rangers. From near Geelong we went through Mildura, Burra, hawker. A lot of the places are going to be a dust bowl by summer . Flinders Rangers already is. Poor farmers.
In the Flinders we stayed two nights at Willow Springs Station and did the 6 hour 63km sky treck. It varies between broad plains to high steep sided ridges as you travel over the ranges. Awesome scenery.
I hadn't done such steep inclines and declines on rocky country for that many hours before and was quite impressed with the power the td prado had in low first going up and also the engine braking boing down in low first.
I would thoughly recommend staying there and doing the trip. $21 to camp $50 to do the sky track.
The day before the whole place was blotted out by a dust storm so the poor people on that day would have missed out on the views.
Lachie

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Reply By: Member - Stephen L (SA) - Wednesday, Oct 04, 2006 at 13:26

Wednesday, Oct 04, 2006 at 13:26

Hi Lachie,
You are right, it is a great part of SA. Every time we get back to the Flinders, we always say why did it take us so long to get back there. This sounds like your first trip in your Diesel.

Having owned both petrol and diesel, I would never go back to a Petrol Vehicle, as you cannot beat a Diesel for that low down power and the engine braking in steep terrain.

SA records its lowest winter rainfall ever on record, with only 53mm of rain falling during our winter period. It will be a very bad year for many farmers in my area, and one farmer said that he will not be getting his header out of his shed this year. It will have a flow through effect for the whole country.

Glad you had a great trip.

Cheers

Stephen

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AnswerID: 197778

Follow Up By: Lachie - Wednesday, Oct 04, 2006 at 16:14

Wednesday, Oct 04, 2006 at 16:14

Its my first trip doing steep hilly tracks. I was raised near Alice so nearly always do desert trip
The last petrol 4wd I had was a 1959 lancruiser with a 3 speed gear box.
Brother and I went around Aus in it in 1982. We used to call it Clyde --- slow and steady. From memory we got about 15 mpg at best. Dearest fuel was about 50cpL.
4wds have come a long way since then and so has the price of fuel.
Lachie.

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Follow Up By: Member - JohnR (Vic)&Moses - Thursday, Oct 05, 2006 at 07:11

Thursday, Oct 05, 2006 at 07:11

Stephen, Heather and I were through early in the year and it looked so promising with crops at 5-6" at that stage in the Northern Clare to the South Flinders. We buy grain so know the depths of problems on issues like these.

Lachie, we had an old cruiser about that vintage, a good thing about it we didn't take advantage of was the PTO ready for a winch. Was handy though, and easy to hotwire when son threw the keys out of the window. Remember the dust when the footwell vents were open, but the fresh air with the under windscreen one was....

FollowupID: 456459

Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (SA) - Thursday, Oct 05, 2006 at 08:31

Thursday, Oct 05, 2006 at 08:31

Hi John.
We live in Clare and it is so very patchy with the crops. There are still a few reasonable good pockets around here, but places like Burra, Blyth, Snowtown etc.. are all looking very grim. A lot of farmers in the area are cutting what crops that they have for Hay.
Like I said before, at the end of the day it will flow through to the whole of Australia.

After all, Bread, Milk and Meat are not grown in supermarkets. Clare is always regarded as a safe farming area, so when things are not real good here, it is very grim in other areas.

Regards

Stephen

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Reply By: slave - Wednesday, Oct 04, 2006 at 13:42

Wednesday, Oct 04, 2006 at 13:42

The Flinders is great isn't it.
We got discount on our camping at Sky Trek, must have been because DH told them how much the kids enjoyed it last time 'cos it certainly wasn't his good looks.....LOL. They told DH that the homestead had only recieved 7mm of rain instead of the 12mm that was the average. We got 5mm the night that we returned home.

We did Sky Trek on Sept 21, did you do it on the 20th, if so you did the day after AdrianLR and he said it was really bad. Either that or they had another dust storm.

Mrs S

AnswerID: 197782

Reply By: Barnesy - Thursday, Oct 05, 2006 at 03:03

Thursday, Oct 05, 2006 at 03:03

Don't live far from the Flinders and my town looks like middle Februaru after a long hot summer. I wonder what the place will be like when it really comes to February?

One thing is for sure though, the Flinders will survive and still be beautiful.

Barnesy

AnswerID: 197896

Reply By: Truckster (Vic) - Thursday, Oct 05, 2006 at 10:26

Thursday, Oct 05, 2006 at 10:26

Heading there in November. H A N G I N G OUT TO GO.

Hope it rains every third day until we get there :D

AnswerID: 197930

Reply By: SA_Patrol - Thursday, Oct 05, 2006 at 17:42

Thursday, Oct 05, 2006 at 17:42

Hi Lachie, he must have seen your mexican plates to charge you them prices, we were there last weekend and it's only $15 per couple per night at Willow Springs unless you had 2 extra people. Also I thought it was $40 if you were camping there.

AnswerID: 197972