Farina Downs

On Friday the 21st April, we left Rawnsley Station for Farina Downs which is on the way to Marree and Lake Eyre. There were a couple of roads to get there which were unsealed and slower, Parachilna Gorge Road and Brachina Gorge Road, but the saving in kilometres were not great and so going back via Hawker and then north again was the best option. Sad to leave Rawnsley and the Flinders. I think it will be a long time before we return as this had been our third or fourth visit there. We drove down to Hawker, filled up with fuel and shopped for a few items and then headed north. A stop at the Parachilna Prairie Hotel was a must. This is an iconic pub and is always on the list of visits for people doing a loop drive through Brachina Gorge or from Blinman out to the Outback Highway. The pub serves various outback dishes, such as, camel, crocodile, kangaroo and emu. When we were here last we had lunch there. It seems the wind always blows hard at Parachilna and this day was no exception.

We stopped at Leigh Creek for more fuel as we wanted to patronise the town a bit. It was also a reasonable price for diesel, $2.15 per litre as opposed to $2.80 at Marree. Leigh Creek is a town that serviced the coal mining community. The mine became unviable and this once bustling, modern town is a shadow of its former self with many streets closed off to traffic to prevent looting, I guess. Without the little CBD operating it will cause many farmers and various businesses to suffer and go without many services or even shutdown. We also stopped in at the grog shop for some port as well. Next stop was the sister town of Copley which was 5km away. It is a much smaller town but has a great bakery. We got some pies for lunch and some quandong pies to take away, delicious. Another 70km or so and we reached Farina Downs. Went straight to the campground there, found a spot and set up. Farina is a former town and is now a working sheep and cattle station. It was established as a town in 1878 but there was a lot of activity prior to that dating back to the 1850s which is old history for Australian standards. A Policeman was posted there in 1874. The town is being restored by volunteers and has a campground that is looked after by the property owners.

There are demountable showers and toilets and the grass is slashed. It is a great bush campground. This is our home for the night. Our vans are in the background of the first photo.

At the campground on a high piece of ground is an Anzac Memorial that has been set up. They have done a lovely job with it. The Farina community gave a lot with 34 men serving in WW1 and 5 being killed in action and 10 being wounded. Their WW2 contribution was also great.

The land all around is pretty desolate looking, but that is the outback.

We settled in for a nice night around the campfire.

The next morning we did sightseeing around the old ruins. It is amazing how people survived out here but they did and thrived. There are many interesting stories, eg the kids going out to meet the train to get a scoop of ice cream, one of their few treats in life. Here are quite a few photos to put you in the picture.

This was the station masters cottage.

This is the line of the railway and the next is the juncture of two lines.

I love these old photos of how it was back in the day.

This old bakery operates from the 1st of May so we were to early for it unfortunately. The word is the bread is beautiful. The campers and volunteers benefit greatly from it.

Policing at Farina.

I thoroughly enjoyed this visit to Farina Downs. I am glad there are committed volunteers that come out every year to work on restoration and presentation of the old town as a tourist attraction.