Day Trip to the Flinders Ranges

A number of day trips can be taken from Port Augusta. We only did one to Quorn, about 40km from Port Augusta, in the Flinders Ranges. Quorn is a lovely village, it is thought that the Nugunu Aborigines lived here prior to European settlement in 1875. Early properties were mostly wheat and sheep, as they are today. The town was surveyed in 1878 and named after Quorndon in Leicestershire. The town developed with the coming of the Great Northern Railway in 1879. Our first stop was the Old Railway Station which is also the information centre. One can pick up a historical walk pamphlet and walk around the town. The railway also has working railway yards out the back and a small museum attached. The track from here to Port Augusta is the only remaining original Ghan railway track. Known as the Pichi Richi Railway, it operates half day, and full day trips in historic carriages, some original Ghan carriages, weekends and school holidays.

Leaving the Railway Station, we walked past many old buildings. The heritage walk pamphlet tells the history of many of the buildings, including the oldest still standing stone building in the town, the Quandong Cafe. The corner shop, now a cafe/museum, has been many different establishments over the years, including a CWA that served tea and scone to the soldiers during WWII.

A lot of movies have been made in Quorn: Walk About (1952); Robbery Under Arms (1956); The Sundowners (1960); Sunday Too Far Away (1975); Gallipoli (1980); The Shiralee (1987). We went met a lovely lady in the Arts and crafts shop – where I bought some fabric (of course) – who told us a lot of history about the area. The shop is leased by the council and is one shop in a row of about three that is 1895 housed the newspaper Quorn Mercury. Find out more about the history of Quorn here.

We then decided to do another loop around the area to visit some ruins and an historical grave. First stop was to find somewhere for lunch, which we did at Warren Gorge. We saw a couple of wallabies and many happy campers. This area is also a bush camp. So lovely and quiet. We left the sealed road and headed around a gravel road, past ruins to Hugh Proby's grave. A sad story, Hugh Proby took up a pastoral lease of Kanyaka on 1^st July 1851, at the age of 22 years, after only a few months in South Australia. Born in Derbyshire, Hugh arrived with a friend, and they built a number of timber huts (not the stone ruins we see today) around the property. One night in August 1852, a thunderstorm struck and unsettled the cattle so Hugh and another stockman rode out to settle the cattle. Along with the thunderstorm, came flash flooding in Willochra Creek. While attempting to cross the creek, Hugh was swept from his horse and he drowned. His grave is not far from where he drowned. He was 24 years old. Six years after his death his family sent out the large Scottish granite stone and had it taken to the grave from Port Augusta by bullock team.

Driving along the gravel road with nothing but plains on either side of the highway we came to Simmonston Ruins. Simmonston was surveyed 1872 and was one of six locations proposed for the railway to come through. Some enterprising entrepreneurs decided to start building a town and tried to sell of plots 'at a bargain price. A two storey hotel was started and also a general store across the road, but neither were finished as word came through that the railway would not be coming that way. We were then back on the sealed Flinders Ranges Highway, heading back to Port Augusta.