The Flinders Ranges Council Area.

The Flinders Ranges Council covers an area of 4,198Sq km’s and is situated in South Australia’s fabulous photogenic  Flinders Ranges. It is the northern most council in the Flinders Ranges and the area has much to offer the traveller. It also contains the greatest Secrets of the Flinders Ranges, some of which are almost unknown to many of the locals and travellers alike. This is where you will find the beautiful red and orange coloured sandstone rock faces heralding yet another entrance to a gorge along with the shady Red Gum tree lined creeks and an amazing variety of wild flowers in Spring. Intermingled with all this you will travel across the great open plains like Willochra, Barndioota and others, and through plenty of the saltbush country for which South Australia's outback is so famous.

To balance this we have some of the best examples of outback towns with their wide streets and well preserved old stone buildings. We have schools, hospitals, shopping facilities, sports areas, swimming pools, bush camping and a one day postal service to Adelaide. The freedom to be able to let your 4 year old child go down the street to get a packet of flour, while mum stays home and continues with the cooking is envied by many of our city cousins.

This is where the history has been made by those battlers who were prepared to take a chance even though they had no knowledge of how harsh this environment would turn out to be. Many failed, some survived and for these the battle continues even today. This area is not for the faint hearted. Those who can stand up and accept the challenges in this type of country are often envied for their relaxed, free, "she'll be right mate" type of lifestyle.

Entrance to Buckaringa Gorge.

The service towns of Quorn and Hawker are both within this council along with the small outpost of Cradock. Varied places of surprise and great beauty abound within the area, some well known, many which are not. Of course we still have all of that which has made us famous in the past. The original Ghan train started on its long journey to the North from the Quorn Railway Station situated on Railway Terrace. This old Ghan train with some of the original carriages restored is now operated between Quorn and Port Augusta on day trips The world famous steam trains of the Pichi Richi Railway are based here today. This railway is considered to be one of the two best historic steam train railways in Australia. Now that the Secrets of the Flinders Ranges are out, you (regardless of whether you are either a newcomer or seasoned Savvy Traveller) will need to plan on spending much more time in this beautiful area, on your next holiday to South Australia’s fabulous photogenic Flinders Ranges. For your next relaxing, peaceful and scenic, bushwalking, camping or outback holiday we of Quorn and Hawker can show you some genuine history, surprises, native flora, native fauna and real natural beauty along with a steam train experience you will never forget. Read on to discover the other holiday tastes like sport, art, dining and history that we cater for.

Steam train in the Pichi Richi Pass.

The Rural Base. With the re-routing of the railways through Port Augusta in the early 1950's this area is now very much rural based. Wheat, barley and oats are the main crops grown on the farms today. Grazing sheep for their wool with some fat lamb production is the major farming enterprise throughout the whole of the district. In the last 20 years this has been slowly and partially taken over on some farms by beef cattle. Shearing Time Most farms today have a number of old ruins, homesteads of the hopeful settlers from the early days who just could not survive the low rainfall and droughts on the small holdings which they had been granted by the Government of the day. In those times the blocks taken up for farming were usually about 640 acres (one square mile) or less. Huge areas that were taken up for farming of wheat by eager settlers later proved to be useless for this purpose due to the average rainfall on much of the plains being as low as 200 - 225mm or 8 - 9 inches per year. One example of the thinking of the day is that Quorn at one time had two flour mills, neither of which have operated as such for almost a century now. Many a home, church, school and hotel ruin built upon the dreams of early settlers can still be found in the area. Most of them were built out of  local sandstone and therefore easily recognised by the heaps of rubble often accompanied by some trees.

Australian Hibiscus Yam Flower Hop Bush

Early Settlements

A number of towns surveyed for this area during the early days have never been more than a hotel, a school, a church and perhaps a dozen homes. Others like Simmonston were surveyed to have as many as 600 blocks and only ever had one or two buildings. Usually a hotel was the first to be built. These often catered for the drivers of bullock teams and were placed about one days drive apart.

Some of the names of surveyed but failed settlements that come to mind are Saltia, Pichi Richi, Hawkshaw, Stephenston, Kingswood, Willochra, Simmonston, Gordon, Kanyaka, Wilson, Chapmanton, Barndioota, Hookina, and Wonoka. When you look at a map and see the size of some of these surveys you begin to realise there must have been a lot of heartbreak endured by many early settlers when their dreams did not eventuate.

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