Monday 22 August 2011

South to Port Augusta

According to the map we've been driving in a prohibited area even though we were on the Stuart Highway. There is a good little museum at Woomera, the town where all residents have a job - you're not allowed to rent a house from the owners, the Defence Department (I think) unless you're working. So there aren't many elderly people in Woomera. We met one volunteering at the museum but he's only there because he lives with his son. The museum details the huge areas put under restriction when the rocket testing programs started after WW2, it details the lives of the highly educated community that lived at Woomera in the 50s and 60s, it has collections of photos and maps and memorabilia and in the park outside there are real rockets. We enjoyed our visit and stayed longer than we had intended.

Then today we travelled south to Port Augusta. It's not very far but it took us all day because the landscape is so interesting. At one stop we met an interesting resident, a cross and brilliantly-coloured stumpytail looking wonderful on the red sand.





No comments: