Wallaroo Wonderful

Elly May in the Box Seat at Wallaroo, SA

I  have realised, while reading my friends' contributions that I have been making some dangerous assumptions. These include some really basic errors; assuming that people know about South Australia, or even Australia in general.  So when I tell you about Wallaroo, it needs a bit of expansion.
Wallaroo has been something of a poor relation in some respects, if you look at its overall position in South Australia's  Copper Triangle.  Wallaroo, by the sea,  was the smelter and port for the riches being extracted from the mines. Moonta Mines had been the hub, the centre of the financial focus of SA.  Here were the mines powering the economy of the state in the 1860 - 1900s and what was Wallaroo? The port. The chimneys? I forget how many but a sepia photo shows stacks of chimneys and I don't care if you guffaw a bit at that. Kadina at this stage was the interchange between sheep and cereal farm and fortune. The Moonta Mines made profits to rival Burra's Monster mine. The Adelaide Pound was a highly desirable piece of money and the banks cemented themselves into an impregnable position on the basis of the copper, used for wiring, brass cartridges for war, plumbing, housing, electricity.  The money made English copper retailers rich. It made Moonta mine Directors and even Captains rich. It made the boldest shareholders happy. It made the miners  happy to work. And Wallaroo? Well, the fishing is still good. The inland landscape was never worth any attention. The highest landform was the tailings dump and that's gone now. Most of the scrubby, mallee-sized trees went for early buildings and later steam power and all were gone in a trice.  Nobody planted more because they take so long to grow in a place with limestone thinly covered by lousy topsoil and rainfall that is unimpressive. The memories have faded and the fortunes have waxed and waned. Industry has also waxed and almost completely waned.  The sea hasn't changed. It was then, and is now, gorgeous. Tourism is waxing, riding roughshod over the limestone, the bulldust and the salt-damp.

The sea is the snorkeller's paradise, clear and calm

So we will spend four days here licking a few wounds and girding up a few loins.  Zan's bowls wounds result from a thorough licking at the hands of Watervale but on the treacherous shifting sands of Rink 4, A Green. Ah, you say. Bowling is both treat and treachery. Yes, but more so when Z has brought pink bowls, the envy of all, to the  battlefront; now, the pink bowls are proving headstrong in the shifting breeze, and too sensitive to the magical mystery tour that is Rink 4. I am girding up my loins for a last assault on the basilica of the musical and artistic situation of the R - 5 students at Clare PS. To be honest, a half-asault, to end mid-May 2013.

Elly May however has been transformed by a simple remedy known to most motorists, that of tyre pressure. The addition of five pounds of pressure to all four of her tyres, and those of Jethro's rear tyres,

transformed the performance of the rig from uncretain to ultimate. Today, in a quarterly wind ranging from forty to seventy km/h along a road with a broken border of trees (providing us with a nasty variation in gusts) the journey was never uncomfortable. She followed along with many a short swing of her skirt without ever shifting Jethro from his determined path. Mind you, 80 - 85 Km/h in fourth gear was prudent. The distance to achieve was minimal and the light was good despite travelling almost due west in to the setting sun.

The View from our site at North Beach, Wallaroo

How's our site at Wallaroo? Wow. There are five new sites in front of an ensuite setup almost beachfront. Sites 3, 4 and 5  have a view to die for as sea frontages go. We have secured Site 4 and backed in, tentatively because two vehicles were partlially parked thereon; when the owners saw my very slow but determined rearward approach, both hastily shifted their vehicles, proving that sometimes it pays to be blunt in one's approach. Only after we levelled up, sullage and water connected, did we lift our eyes, O Jerusalem, to the horizon. And we beheld the beauty of our position. Wallaroo is pretty good in every respect, as I can attest, from a quick lap of the arena.  We have it made, folks. We have fluked the box seat.

This new pub is Designer in every way. We dine there tomorrow night and will report on its Personality.

Tomorrow we breakfast, it being Sunday, on cholesterol and opulence, before I may begin to erect the annexe. As Scarlett said, tomorrow is another day. Tonight, I am charging the battery for the camera, and look out for tomorrow's post.  I got nothing to do but to show you some really good stuff.