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Welcome to
Outback
the
From riesling and pan-tossed pasta to feral food platters in the Outback, Paula Heelan
savours the flavours of South Australia on a road trip from Adelaide to Coober Pedy.
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U
nlike our standard, rushed drives
from point A to point B, this
1,360-kilometre road trip is the
destination and it’s one I’ve been
hankering after. While my husband acquaints
himself with the Audi Q3’s multimedia system
and minute, modern Navman, I follow the road
signs from Adelaide airport to the Clare Valley. It
takes just over an hour, and as we amble through
historical towns, past cellar doors, wheat farms
and paddocks dotted with fat cattle and sheep,
the city frenzy becomes a faint memory.
One of Australia’s most famous wine-producing
regions, the Clare Valley was settled by English,
Irish and Polish migrants during the 1840s. They
created an enduring, rich heritage of villages and
architecture, with many buildings now operating
as charming guesthouses, historical pubs,
restaurants and art galleries. We visit Mintaro’s
Irongate Studio Gallery to see contemporary artist
Jen Penglase-Prior’s abstract pastels, which have
earned her an international profile.
We continue along one of the many trails to
Burra, where copper was discovered in 1845. Once
a thriving mining area, Burra has been devotedly
conserved. On the Burra Passport Key Trail we
“We amble through
historical towns,
past cellar doors,
wheat farms
and paddocks.”
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“We are introduced to Skillogalee’s
world-class handcrafted wines
and superb local produce.”
Above, and
below: Historical
sights along the
Stuart Highway;
Skillogalee’s
winemaker, Dave
Palmer, at work.
are given keys to unlock historical sites, and with
a guidebook to 65 others, including Redruth Gaol,
Unicorn Brewery, museums and dugouts in the
banks of Burra Creek where migrants once
squatted, we explore the 11-kilometre driving trail.
When night falls we dine on the verandah of a
rustic stone cottage at the family-owned Skillogalee
winery with Dave and Diana Palmer and some local
producers and business operators. They introduce us
to Skillogalee’s world-class handcrafted wines and
superb local produce. Dave and Diana’s daughter,
Nicola, is head chef and restaurant manager and
she cooks exquisitely for us. I choose home-grown
figs wrapped in prosciutto and stuffed with goat’s
cheese, confit duck and vanilla panna cotta with
rose-poached pear, blackcurrant coulis and raspberry
sorbet, and my new best friend – Clare Valley
riesling – with its zingy citrus and crisp, dry finish.
Dave tells us about Skillogalee’s history with
infectious enthusiasm. “The cottage was built by
Cornish miner John Trestrail in 1851,” he says.
“The property stayed in his family until the early
1900s, when it was planted with stone fruit and
vines for dried fruit, currants and sultanas. In
the 1950s it became a grazing property and in
1969 wine grapes were planted – early varieties of
riesling, shiraz, grenache and crouchen.”
Skillogalee offers three accommodation
choices: Skillogalee House, Wren Cottage and Owl
Cottage, which is ours for the night. Set amid hills
and vineyards, it is laid-back, romantic luxury.
At dinner we meet the delightful Katherine
Maitland, who tells us about her wheat property,
Anama Park, 18 kilometres north-west of Clare.
“My husband Jim’s family has traditionally worked
the land for broadacre crops since 1866,” she says.
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“Recently, we created a new arm to the business
– hand-shaped pasta made from durum wheat
grown at Anama.” Katherine invites us to visit her
place the next morning.
The dirt road to Anama’s historical homestead
carves a path through harvested wheatfields. The
Maitlands’ stone-milled, wholegrain pasta, branded
Pangkarra, is a rare commodity in today’s world of
mass-produced pasta and overseas imports.
Katherine says the best thing about the business
is its back-to-basics, traditional way of making
food. “We make fettuccine, spaghetti, pappardelle,
lasagne, linguine and spiral pasta. It is dried on racks
and is 100 per cent natural. We also make Australia’s
only stone-milled, wholegrain durum flour.”
With guests lingering at Anama this morning,
Jim’s mother, Margot, has whipped up some
fettuccine, pan-tossed in olive oil with crushed
garlic, mushrooms and flat-leaf parsley. Its delicious,
nutty taste and wonderfully rough but light texture
is seriously good.
From Clare, we continue through more quaint
towns. Before long, the earth begins to redden and
the landscape becomes a panning shot of smooth,
sweeping plains. We stop often to photograph
ruins, mostly homesteads and rail sidings from
the old Ghan railway that stand solitary in fields
of flaxen grass. Further on, there isn’t a ‘welcome
to the Outback’ sign, but we know we’ve passed
through the gateway. Drawing close to Parachilna
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in the late afternoon, with the Flinders Ranges
rising dramatically in the distance, we are awash
in a translucent, golden light. Loving the freedom
of driving on the quiet, smooth-sailing Stuart
Highway, we make it to the Prairie Hotel by sunset.
At this fabulously restored pub we swap stories
with a handful of stockmen and pilots. We drink
the pub’s own Fargher Lager and share one of its
famous feral platters. The mix of saltbush dukkah,
emu, camel and kangaroo is a little gamy but tasty.
Pastoralists Ross and Jane Fargher bought the
pub in 1991. “We recognised the hotel’s potential
and thought that by providing good food, service
and accommodation we could keep people coming,”
Jane says. Right they were. It’s an enticing shelter
in the Outback, with a contemporary eco-design.
It houses an impressive Aboriginal art gallery and
there are cabins and powered sites across the road
in the old settler’s camp.
En route to William Creek we stop at Marree.
In the centre of town, beside the old railway station
where rolling stock stands rusting, is outback legend
Tom Kruse’s old truck, which he drove on the track
between Marree and Birdsville, delivering mail from
1936 to 1957. In this haunting desert settlement
the town’s solitude and isolation is palpable. Marree
Hotel owner Phil Turner shows us through his pub.
At the door of each guestroom he gives us a lively
account of the hotel’s ghosts, describing who died,
where and how.
Clockwise
from far left:
Pangkarra’s
100 per cent
natural pasta;
the Prairie Hotel
attracts a crowd;
Phil Turner from
the Marree Hotel;
dingoes are a
common sight
from the road;
culinary delights
at Skillogalee’s
restaurant; the
open road of the
Stuart Highway,
approaching the
Flinders Ranges.
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Round-up
STAY
Marree Hotel
Railway Terrace South, Marree
08 8675 8344, www.marreehotel.com.au
Prairie Hotel
High Street and West Terrace, Parachilna
08 8648 4895, www.prairiehotel.com.au
William Creek Hotel
Oodnadatta Track, William Creek
08 8670 7880, www.williamcreekhotel.net.au
Desert Cave Hotel
Hutchison Street, Coober Pedy
08 8672 5688, www.desertcave.com.au
EAT & DRINK
Skillogalee
Trevarrick Road, Sevenhill
08 8843 4311, www.skillogalee.com.au
Pangkarra
Anama Park, Mt Tinline Road, RSD 18, Clare
08 8846 2137, www.pangkarrafoods.com.au
EXPLORE
On to William Creek, population 12, where we
stay at the world’s most isolated pub, the William
Creek Hotel. With feral food on the menu again,
I try kangaroo shanks – a little rich and not for the
faint-hearted. With a lovely absence of all things
metro, we are now entrenched in outback life.
Next morning we fly over the world’s largest
cattle property, Anna Creek Station, and the fragile
inland sea, Lake Eyre. Flooded for the fourth year
in a row, the lake still holds a mass of water. Our
pilot, Michael Urquhart, provides a captivating
commentary as we take in swirling salt flats flanked
in huge sections by smooth, red terrain and water in
gleaming shades of blue and, in parts, algal pink.
We begin our drive along the Oodnadatta Track
between William Creek and Coober Pedy at sunrise.
We stop to let emus cross, stare a dingo in the face
and walk along part of the famous 5,300-kilometre
Dog Fence built in the 1880s to protect sheep.
At midday we reach Coober Pedy. The lunar-like
landscape is strewn with shafts and mine workings
spanning 40 kilometres around the town. With
Desert Diversity Tours guide and long-time resident
Peter Rowe, we visit a stunning underground
Orthodox church, an opal mine and a museum.
Like kids on an expedition, we are delighted by our
underground digs at the Desert Cave Hotel.
When the time comes to return to the city, hand
over the car keys and settle in for the flight home,
we’re aware the journey has been very special.
Wrightsair
William Creek
08 8670 7962, www.wrightsair.com.au
Desert Diversity Tours
Coober Pedy
08 8672 5226, www.desertdiversity.com
MORE INFO
SA Visitor and Travel Centre
108 North Terrace, Adelaide
1300 764 227, www.southaustralia.com
Burra Visitor Centre
2 Market Street, Burra
08 8892 2154, www.visitburra.com
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