​Shovel had a job offer back in Mount Isa, so we departed Darwin soaked in summer rains and ventured south back along the Stuart highway following our previous route, taking a short lunch break at Pine Creek. 

​Our first night’s stop was Mataranka, and this time we stayed at the Mataranka Homestead located at the “famous Thermal Pools.” A homestead constructed in 1916 on a sheep station, was turned into the tourist attraction experienced today by Victor Smith after he returned to the area in 1946 having visited the springs during WWII. The springs are situated near a replica of the old Elsey Homestead, which was constructed for the film, We of the Never Never, based on a book published in 1908 of the same name by Jeannie Gunn. Gunn arrived in Mataranka with her husband, Aeneas in 1902 to manage the Elsey Station but she left shortly after in 1903 following Aeneas’ death. The territory remained with Jeannie and the novel based on her experiences at Elsey became a best seller, which was subsequently turned into two movies (1950s and 1980s). The phrase ‘Never Never’ refers to the notion of being somewhere hopelessly distant and was synonymous with isolation and doing it tough. Henry Lawson coined the term in his 1901 poem, The Never-Never Land, which captured the sentiment of loneliness evoked by Gunn. This is an extract:

Where lone Mount Desolation lies
Mounts Dreadful and Despair-
‘Tis lost beneath the rainless skies
In hopeless deserts there;
It spreads nor-west by No-Man’s Land
 Where clouds are seldom seen
To where the cattle stations lie
Three hundred miles between.     ​

​Mataranka Springs is part of the Cambrian Limestone Aquifer (CLA) one of the largest aquifers in Australia (about 1.5 times the size of Italy) fed from two CLA groundwater flow paths, the Daly and the Georgina. In studies conducted at the Mataranka Springs Complex by the Australian Government CSIRO in late 2019 scientists discovered radiogenic helium, which indicated a third very old groundwater source (perhaps hundreds of thousands of years old) could also be feeding the springs. This is vital information that will require further investigation and assist with the assessment of a gas resources development currently being undertaken in the Beetaloo Basin. There are concerns within the community that hydraulic fracturing in the Basin may contaminate the water supply or over-exploit the groundwater.

​It was the national public holiday, Australia Day when we left Darwin and arrived at the Thermal Springs. Despite the controversy of celebrating the birth of a nation on a day synonymous with the declaration by British colonisers of ‘terra nullius’ that lead to the disregard of First Nations and the destruction of their culture, the vibe was amicable and welcoming. Florence was one of only two caravans at the park, so we assumed that most of the visitors enjoying the refreshingly clear springs were locals, joking, splashing around, and laughing as they listened to classic Aussie rock on a nearby portable radio. An Indigenous elder attempted to converse with us but as we couldn’t speak the local language and therefore weren’t able to grasp the conversation but appreciated the experience and were grateful for his attempts to include us ‘blow ins’ in the festivities. Later that night after a feed at the open-air Malukas Bar we were treated to an incredible lightening display, which we witnessed through the window of Florence as she swayed in the wind and was plated by the intense summer rain.          

​Arriving at the Threeways Roadhouse we promptly unhitched Florence and took off south down the Stuart Highway in the direction we had just come from. And I literally mean we “took off” down the highway, unshackled from Florence, Cherry was able to really feel the breeze through her radiator grill as we took advantage of the 130km speed limit! Just north of Tennant Creek we had passed the Overland Telegraph Line Station and I was bursting to check it out. I’m completing fascinating by stone dwellings and didn’t want to miss an opportunity to visit a restored stone dwelling in Central Australia. Access to the Station’s interior requires a key obtained from the visitor’s centre, which being late in the day we didn’t have time to collect but we made the most of our experience, exploring the surrounding buildings and old graves. The visit definitely had a profound impact on me, and I was left pondering the connection between stone dwellings and hot-dry arid climates. 

Extract from Gumby’s unfinished 2022 Honours Thesis…
As I stepped from the air-conditioned sanctuary of the car, I was struck by the intensity of the heat, I felt as though I’d just cracked the door of a hot oven, instantly blasted, my cheeks flushed, eyes watered, and lungs burnt as I gulped for air. It was late afternoon in Jurnkkurakurr (Tennant Creek), Central Australia, January 2019, Australia was experiencing an “unusual extended period of heatwaves” (BoM, 2019, 14 March, p. 4), the Larapinta Trail in Tjoritja (West MacDonnell National Park) near Mparntwe (Alice Springs) was ablaze (DTSC, 2019), and the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres had issued a bleak outlook, “I believe we are losing the race. Climate change is running faster than we are” (UN, 2019, para. 3).

The Tennant Creek Overland Telegraph Line Station situated approximately 520 kilometres north of Alice Springs, constructed of stone in 1874 (PWCNT, 2002), was restored and opened to the public in 2012. Michael Holstein a traditional stonemason was engaged to dismantle and rebuild the external Station walls, stone by stone, he stated the stone was laid incorrectly, the grain faced the wrong direction permitting it to shale in the wind (Brain, 2012). Completed in 1872 the Overland Telegraph Line (OTL) was heralded as an engineering triumph that included the installation of 36,000 poles traversing the continent, approximately 3,000 kilometres, south to north, from Kurdnatta (Port Augusta) to Garramilla (Darwin), and included the construction of eleven repeater Stations, to house equipment and personnel (Pugh, 2022).
​
When I visited the Station in January 2019, Tennant Creek had just experienced a record-breaking 23 consecutive days over 40°C (BoM, 2019, p.30). There were no other cars in the carpark as I retreated from the intensity of the sun under the verandah and noticed the cooling effect created by the stone walls. I was reminded of traditional stone architecture prominent in the Middle East. The Köppen-Geiger climate system classified Tennant Creek as BWh, an arid hot-dry desert, the same classification given to the Middle East, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, and Egypt (Beck et al., 2018).  I wondered if the Tennant Creek OTL Station had been constructed from locally quarried stone in response to the climate, and what it was like to live in such a building?

Located on private property and accessed by a gold coin donation, along the Eyre Peninsula about 40kms from Streaky Bay are a group of ancient, seasoned, pink granite rocks said to be over 1500 million years old. Named after Denis Murphy who owned the property back in the early 20th century, the rock formations appear from a distance in the arid wheatbelt district to be haystacks, hence the name, “Murphy’s Haystacks.” Known as inselbergs, which means “island rock,” the hard granite edifices have remained, protruding out of the surface of the ground, as the surrounding softer material has eroded over time through weathering. Research fellow at the University of Adelaide, Professor Victor Gostin said the actual granite itself is very ancient believed to be over 3 billion years old, making the “haystacks” a significant tourist destination in the region and one that Murphy’s grandson and current owner Denis Cash has been happy to open to the public. Other inselbergs across Australia, include, Uluru in the Northern Territory and Wave Rock in Western Australia, both of which Shovel and I are yet to experience together. Shove and I had a fantastic time running around and between the rock formations, in awe of the magic of nature.