BUSH CAMPS

You can become very fond of, and attached to your home, and equally so to Bush Camps. Places where you might have spent a long time. I know quite a few people who live permanently, and very happily, in a Bush Camp.

I can name  three that I have very fond memories of.

Coolgubbin

Back in the late 1960s, as I was starting my charter business, during the summer I was contract fencing on the Nullarbor Plain. I managed to get a 10 acre miscellaneous lease in the middle of the Great Victoria Desert, 300 kms north of Rawlinna, north of the trans-line. A couple of my mates and I carted a 1,000 gallon corrugated iron tank, small trough and roof catchment (in a holden ute with a raised front end) and Toyota Highlux. With the lease (I was a Laverton’s Shire Council most far flung rate payer), I had selected a very attractive area comprising marble gum, ( Euc.gongylocarpa) Mulga (Ac.aneura) and Oldea mallee (Euc. Youngianna), with Spinifex and a varied understory. Nearby were Laterite breakaways (remnant plateaus).

It was a very hot February - in the upper forties. On the first day we were sitting under a large Marble gum, just north of Neale’s Junction. We had dropped the silver 44 gal. drum of fuel there for my winter trips, and were sitting next to it boiling the billy. Suddenly a spectacularly beautiful parrot fluttered down at our feet, no doubt mistaking the silver drum for water. It had a brilliant scarlet front, and I knew straight away it had to be a Scarlet chested Parrot, whose stronghold is the Great Victoria Desert. A great moment, which greatly improved the stale sandwiches we were eating!

We established the camp in the next few days, calling it “Coolgubbin”.

Within a year the tank had filled. The trough was intended to set up a permanent watering point in an area where there was none, and to observe what visited it. Unfortunately, motion cameras where not available then, but I made one very interesting discovery. In the good seasons (and the Great Victoria Desert gets more of these than the deserts further north, due to its closer proximity to the sea),  there would be 100s of thousands of Budgerigars nesting in this region. Seemingly, they never availed themselves of the water, instead getting their moisture from the green spinifex seed they fed on. Nesting in the many hollows of the Marble gums and Mallee, in a six-weekly rotation through the cooler months.

There were not as many wild camels around then and they didn’t visit my trough either.

We had many good camps there over the years, until the W.A. Govt (C.A.L.M.) arrogantly cancelled my lease, saying that it was in the wrong place! They wanted to establish the Neale Junction Wildlife Reserve. By that time I wasn’t using it anyway.

WARRAGUNDI

After I purchased the land out of Blinman, south of the Parachilna Road, I needed to establish a Bush Camp there. I spent many days walking over the 1600 acres. One day, late afternoon, I came to this spot and decided to camp the night. A very attractive location, located a couple of hundred mts below, and to the east of the highest peak in the area:  a little flat of about 30 square metres, under a large clump of “Mallee Box”. (Euc  s ocialis). The ‘flat’ was bordered on the east side by a 10m high “knob” of large red rocks. I rolled out my sleeping bag, and as the south-west wind blew strongly through the night, it was totally protected where I was camped. Next morning I was awakened by a Raven in the tree above me, calling loudly. I knew there was an Aboriginal name for “black crow” called “Warragundi”, so I had my name.

Over the years we have spent many weeks camped here, eventually towing up a well-built old Millard caravan. The area was very steep and I wasn’t game to look in the rear-vision mirror! We located it under the high Mallees and built a roof catchment over it. Then a 10, . poly tank was added, along with a deck, stone bar-b-ques, bird watering point, and dunny - with the best view in the Flinders! We had a very comfortable camp. The second highest habitation in the Northern Flinders.

My partner Claire, has painted murals on the tank, and my late wife’s (Patti) ashes are spread on the hill above the camp, with a memorial plaque. She grew up in the Flinders and loved that spot.

It has been the last overnight camp for my Lake Eyre Boat Trips for many years.

A pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles nest less than 1km away, and on many occasions they will come across and circle close enough to see their eyes scrutinising us. From the deck, most evenings, we could see one or both, perched on a dead pine branch, not far from their nest. Excellent neighbours!

This Camp was recently sold to some South Australians who love the Flinders, who will no doubt be excellent custodians.

FRED’S FOREST,

When I sold my River property in 2018 and repurchased my bush property at The Range’ in the Mt. Lofty Ranges, Claire and I lived in a little A-van for 9 months.  We located it on a vineyard property owned by good mates, Fred and Raelene Osmond, at McLaren Flat.

In front of their homestead, Raelene had established a plantation of native trees, some 50 years ago. It comprised about ½ acre and I called it “Fred’s Forest” – even though Raelene had planted the trees! We carted all our furniture down from the River, storing it on pallets under tarps, and hoped for the best. My late Jack Russell (Billy) lived in the van with us and we were very comfortable. Billy’s social life really looked up, as he would spend a lot of time sleeping in Osmond’s Jack Russel’s verandah bed and was very content. He was 18 years old and had “dog dementia”. He died last July and is buried under a massive Red Gum in Fred’s Forest.

This was a very “busy” camp. There were always tractors and other vehicles coming and going. On Thursday nights we would join half a dozen or so blokes in Wardy’s Shed 50 mts away for a Wine Night. Various bottles of interest would be assessed, all the while consuming ‘finger food’ such as Fred’s famous delectable tomatoes, Duff’s weenies, pickled gherkins, cheeses and… you name it. No doubt the most unsophisticated “tasting venue” in the McLaren Vale district.  No “pseudo sophisticated trendies” to be found here.

A large bull koala would periodically visit a tree above our van, giving his guttural call throughout the night.

I still have one more Bush Camp to set up in the Flinders – and am looking forward to it.