THE OLD MINE

A narrow track

leaves the main road
and winds back
over the range
skirting steep falls
to the valley below.

It ends by ruins
of the old mine –
a boiler house
and chimney,
a gated adit
and main shaft,
some open cut workings
and other buildings,
all in local stone.

It was never a great mine;
about ten years of production,
a century and a half ago,
then a couple of short revivals
over following years –
but copper,
so basic to industry
in a growing colony.

Now it is quiet,
no sound of human activity,
a gentle breeze along the range,
an occasional bird call
but, by a cottage ruin,
a patch of small red poppies,
planted by someone long forgotten,
memories of a garden.

Spring Creek Mine is in the Southern Flinders Ranges of South Australia. For most people it is just a small sign post on the main road. For others, it is a place rich with history and its own quiet beauty.

 

LAKE EYRE – KATI THANDA

We’ve done the tough bush drive before,
to stand on its salt encrusted shoreline
and see nothing but salt,
white salt,
as far as you can see.

But this was different,
to pay someone in a small aeroplane
to fly us over its enormity,
to see it from above,
our last big bush adventure.

First it’s the dunes,
marching parallel, row on row,
into the desert,
seemingly static
but actually moving, with time
over thousands of years.

Then the shoreline,
desert sand giving way to salt,
salt and more salt,
before water
from tropical storms
half a continent away
in another State.

The vastness takes you over.
You feel like an alien.
You watch in awe.