Visiting Woomera and…..

Giggleswick · Veteran Member

Visiting Woomera and…..

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Woomera has an outdoor display of rockets and "stuff" and a museum that is worth a few hours. Not much else.
Roxby is a mining town. A few shops, supermarket, fuel.
Andamooka is an interesting town with things to see.

You could then continue north on the Borefield Road to meet the Oodnadatta Track and turn east to Marree. Both are generally 2WD gravel roads (except after rain). We drove that route a few weeks ago. There are a few thing to see in Marree.
Then you come to Farina. BEWARE the bakery. biggrin

Next is Copley and ANOTHER bakery. wink And Leigh Creek with a supermarket. Fuel is "usually" a tad cheaper in Copley.

Cheers,

Peter

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

With permission from HEMA.

There is now bitumen to Marree.

Northern tip of Lake Torrens to Andamooka in April (not for caravans and permission required from Mulgaria Station))

https://youtu.be/g7Aba07-824

Cheers,

Peter

Mike Harding · Guru

Almost twenty years since I was there but I enjoyed the museum although if you are not a "technical" person it would probably be quite dull.

markf · Senior Member

We got stuck in a SA COVID lockdown for a week at Woomera. Stuck in the caravan park for a week apart from essential shopping wasn't a whole load of fun. Even the bar wasn't allowed to open. We saw quite a number of people let the boredom get the better of them and leave only to be turned around and sent back.... We did get to go to Roxby to do some shopping though.

On another occasion (pre COVID) we stayed for a couple of nights and I reckon that once you have a had a poke around the museum and a drive around to have a look-see the only thing left is a meal at the pub which was pretty good.

There are many reports of the manager being a grumpy s**t but if you follow his instructions and take the time to have a yarn with him he's a bottomless pit of local knowledge and is pretty amusing too. We reckon he's a great bloke. It's not a luxury park but the prices aren't at Big 4 levels either.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Another deviation if you are inclined.
Witchelina Station (west of Farina) is owned by the Nature Foundation. There is camping, showers etc and some self guided 4WD tracks to explore the country.
Cheers,
Peter

HandyWalter · Senior Member

If you have read any of Len Beadell's books, then Woomera can be of interest. If you are ex RAAF it may also be of interest. As I am both I found Woomera of great interest. Its hard to imagine the place was such a big town and now is just empty shells. Given it was off limits, unless you were on official business until recently, (and parts still are), it is of interest to see how Aus contributed to nuclear testing and evolvement and now to world wide surveillance etc.

Bobdown · Guru

markf wrote:
There are many reports of the manager being a grumpy s**t but if you follow his instructions and take the time to have a yarn with him he's a bottomless pit of local knowledge and is pretty amusing too. We reckon he's a great bloke. It's not a luxury park but the prices aren't at Big 4 levels either.

We found him to be an ar$ehole and his gestapo wife not much better, guess he didn't take a liking to us or our friends.

The donga ablutions are fun, unless you are a midget, basically have to stand on the dunny to close the door or you get kneecapped.

Stay at Spuds R/H and do a day trip.

Cheers Bob

BarneyBDB · Senior Member

Many memories of Woomera when it was active back in my Air Force days, I had over 20 trips there carrying out trials. Stayed at the caravan park recently with no problems at all. The manager was very friendly and helpful.

Ubique 68 · Veteran Member

Bitumen to Marree? I assume from Leigh Creek?

-- Edited by Ubique 68 on Thursday 12th of May 2022 03:45:14 PM

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Ubique 68 wrote:
Bitumen to Marree? I assume from Leigh Creek?

From Lyndhurst. Completed recently. Bitumen from Leigh Creek to Lyndhurst has been there for a long while.

The Boreline Road north from Roxby and the Oodnadatta Track are gravel.

On the map I posted, all the solid roads are bitumen. All the dotted roads (except Lyndhurst to Marree) are gravel.

Cheers,

Peter

-- Edited by Peter_n_Margaret on Thursday 12th of May 2022 03:50:00 PM

Giggleswick · Veteran Member

Thanks everyone for your input - no one has said dont go to the 3 places I mentioned so I think we will go and have a look. As I said wont be for a few weeks so will let you know how things went. By the way we are travelling in a 7.3metre Motorhome which restricts us a bit. Cheers

Ubique 68 · Veteran Member

Thanks. Time for a revisit. John.

JeffRae · Guru

Some very useful information from Peter_n_Margaret, thank you