Port Augusta to Roxby Downs, SA

The oppressive mid-summer outback heat descended upon us as we travelled north towards our destination of Roxby Downs. Located about 260 kilometres from Port Augusta and 560 kilometres from Adelaide, Roxby Downs is a service centre for BHP’S Olympic Dam mining operations that was established in the 1980’s and the town is now home to about 4,000 residents. After four long days traversing at pace the Nullarbor, leaving Esperance in Western Australia on Saturday, we arrived in Roxby Downs on Tuesday exhausted and with our optimism and excitement for the next chapter starting to wane slightly. Shovel had been offered a job working as a Communications Technician with the mine and I anticipated picking up some work at the local Council. However, the approximately 90-kilometre journey off the highway into town, consisting of stifling nothingness, had us questioning if we’d made the right decision. This was further compounded when the lady behind the reception counter of the Discovery Caravan Park rhetorically said, “What are you doing here!” Honestly we were perplexed, and driving around the caravan park and town had us concerned – we had said yes to the job lured by our curiosity to explore new surrounds with an open hearted buoyancy to support the town – yet the unfriendly welcome, seeing broken caravans literally in pieces left to bake in the searing heat lingering throughout the caravan park and the town sparse of atmosphere, Woolies and Subway the only places harbouring any form of life, made us want to turn around and leave. Flanked by the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA), a government weapon testing facility on one side and vast deserts and salt lakes on the other, Roxby Downs is inundated by a dismal remoteness. A chastising doom loiters bleakly over the town with many residents feeling the pressures of mortgage stress; unable to sell homes due to the influx of FIFO / DIDO employment opportunities and an established camp located at the mine approximately 15 kilometres north of the town. In my mind I feel as though we stayed in Roxby Downs for a week, however it was actually only one day and two nights – Ry turned down the job and we scurried north off to see what Darwin might have on offer.