Mawson Plateau
stephen...@my-dejanews.com
walking on the Mawson Plateau in the Northern Flinders Ranges.
If you are not familiar with South Australia, and to enable you to make some
sense of the article, I should explain about the weather, creeks and roads in
Northern South Australia.
Rainfall in the area is very infrequent, in times of drought it may be months
or even years between significant rain. Creeks are normally dry except for
times of heavy rainfall. The winter weather patterns that bring rainfall to
the Southern settled areas of South Australia do not normally reach the North
of the state - hence the deserts. Significant rainfall in Northern South
Australia is usually the result of Cyclonic depressions reaching down from
the tropical North of Australia in the summer months - the tropical "Wet
Season", hence rainfall is very infrequent, at times extremely heavy and
sometimes causes wide spread flooding.
Roads in the North of the State are not sealed with asphalt. Roads are
usually graded dirt and are badly affected by rainfall. Four Wheel Drive
tracks are not roads at all, they are usually just the tyre tracks left by
previous vehicles that have traveled across open country.
The week after we returned to Adelaide, Arkaroola reported about 30 mm of
rain, unusual for this time of year. Unsealed roads that we drove on were
closed for a few days, they would have been very muddy and quite slippery.
It's unlikely that just over one inch of rain was enough to cause the creeks
to run. But it would have been enough to rejuvenate the triodia grasses and
drought affected shrubs.
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Our trip to Mawson Plateau was conceived one sunny Sunday afternoon in
February under Jim Pearson's verandah. The occasion was a farewell lunch for
Roger, who was off to South America the next week on a mountain climbing
expedition.
As usual, we got around to talking about bushwalking, and I expressed an
interest in visiting the Mawson Plateau. My inspiration was Emil Domin, who
had talked so enthusiastically about the Plateau at a Bushwalkers meeting a
couple of years earlier. Emil was obviously impressed by the place, and his
photos, particularly of the huge creek were terrific.
My idea was for a gentle exploratory trip, with perhaps a couple of base
camps, and not a hard route march in from Arkaroola. At this stage it was no
more than just a vague idea, something that I would like to do sometime in
the future. Maybe it had something to do with the wine and Jim's food, but
suddenly my vague idea was converted by an enthusiastic group of walkers to a
definite trip. We planned it for the first week of the July school holidays
to accommodate the teachers amongst us.
Roger declared himself official leader, something to do with the Bush and
Mountain Leadership course that he had been involved in for a number of years.
As the months progressed, Rogers enthusiasm, commitment and negotiating skills
with the Manager at Mt Freeling proved pivotal.
At Jim's place that afternoon there were six or seven walkers with varying
levels of commitment to the trip. We considered five or six was probably the
minimum safe number, considering the remote and rugged nature of the Plateau.
As always seems to happen with this sort of long term planning, some of the
original walkers dropped out for various reasons. At one stage it began to
look as if the number of walkers might be down to three or four, less than we
considered safe, and our trip began to look uncertain. Roger came to our
rescue, he was able to persuade his friends Chris Simmons, Edward Tomcyzk and
Sue Bayly to join us. Our numbers were back up to six and by the end of May
the trip was definitely on.
A couple of telephone calls to Arkaroola and frequent monitoring of the
Bureau of Meteorology Web site revealed that the Plateau had received very
little rain in the months leading up to our departure date. We started to get
concerned that finding water would be a problem. People in the Adelaide
Bushwalkers club who have walked on the Plateau assured us that there would
be water in Tee Junction Waterhole, but beyond that, information was quite
sparse. Accordingly we planned to walk in from Paralana Hot Springs and base
camp at Tee Junction Waterhole.
Another telephone call to Arkaroola confirmed that we could leave our cars in
the carpark for the week. Arkaroola would charge $90 per person to drive us
to Paralana Hot Springs on the Sunday and pick us up there again on the
following Saturday. That's two, sixty-four kilometre round trips, on what was
reported to be a very rough and slow road. We considered a charge of $540 for
six people or more than $4.20 a kilometre was rather expensive and started to
consider alternative strategies involving Rogers small 4 wheel drive.
About this time I started to talk to colleagues at work about our planned
trip. Bob McDougall showed more interest than most. He told me about his
brother Ian. In 1984 Ian took part in the CRINSSA Expedition which involved
walking the full length of the Flinders and Mt Lofty Ranges (from Mt Hopeless
to Cape Jervis). A major undertaking as that's about 1,400 kilometres. In
passing I asked Bob, to ask his brother, if he knew anything about the Mawson
Plateau and thought no more about it. Most South Australians have never heard
of the Mawson Plateau, and even fewer people have actually walked in there.
It was unlikely that Ian McDougall would know anything about it.
Some week later I found a hastily scribbled note from Bob on my desk. He had
contacted his brother and according to the note, Ian had walked on the
Plateau eight times! There was a phone number on the note with an invitation
to give Ian a call if I wanted to talk to him. I rang the number, and it
didn't take me long to realise that I had struck gold. Ian was a wealth of
information about the Plateau. He invited us to his place the following
Monday evening to talk about the Plateau. When I got there, Roger and Ian
were already bent over a table covered with maps and aerial photo's of the
area.
Ian had led a number of walks on the Plateau and knew the area well. He marked
waterholes on our 1:50,000 maps. Told us where we could see the rare and
beautiful Yellow Footed Rock Wallabies. Described a creek that he called the
Granite Creek, that ran right through the largest area of exposed granite in
South Australia. Talked about fish that live the in the waterholes at a higher
elevation than Mount Lofty. Told us where we could see the flood levels marked
high on the rock walls that constrain the Hamilton as it leaves the Plateau.
Discussed the best escape routes, should we have an accident in this rugged
country. Plotted the best approach route to Freeling Heights. Drew sketches
showing where we should park our vehicles. On and on, Roger and I scribbled
hasty notes as Ian described a part of the country that he obviously loves.
In the days following our meeting with Ian, I rang Emil and confirmed that the
photo's that had inspired me, were in fact taken in the Granite Creek. Emil
also confirmed Ian's reports of permanent water including fish in the larger
waterholes. Emil had only explored a few kilometres of the Granite Creek
downstream of Tee Junction Waterhole but endorsed Ian's descriptions of the
beauty of the area. I also had a number of telephone conversations with Roger.
We reviewed our plans based on the wealth of new information from Ian and
decided to abandon the Paralana Hot Springs route in favour of Ian's
recommendations. Our final plans were as follows:
Thursday, 2 July; I pick up four rucksacks from Rogers place. It was agreed
that Merilyn and I would take up all the rucksacks in our vehicle. Roger would
take Chris Simmons, Edward Tomcyzk and Sue Bayly in his four wheel drive, his
Suzuki is small, so he would have no room for his passengers' packs.
Friday, 3 July; and Saturday 4 July; We all drive to, and meet at Arkaroola.
Sunday, 4 July; We drive to Mt Fiton ruins, with a side trip to Mt Babbage on
the way. Follow a four wheel drive track from the ruins for about ten
kilometres. The track leads to, and then runs parallel with the Hamilton
Creek. Park the vehicles. Walk up the Hamilton until we reach the tributary
that Ian called the Granite Creek. Camp near one of the many waterholes along
the creek.
Monday, 5 July to Friday 9 July; Short leisurely walks up the creek for 3 or 4
kilometres, set up camp about lunch time, then explore the surrounding areas.
Eventually reaching Tee Junction Waterhole about Wednesday. A trip to Freeling
Heights to look for a misplaced Adelaide Bushwalkers logbook left by a group
led by Nino some years earlier. Day walks from Tee Junction Waterhole.
Saturday, 10 July; return to the vehicles and drive to Arkaroola for the
evening. Showers, a good meal and a bottle or two of red wine.
Sunday, 11 July; Roger, Chris Simmons, Edward Tomcyzk and Sue Bayly return to
Adelaide leaving Steve and Merilyn to enjoy a couple of day's luxury and day
walks at Arkaroola.
Would it all work out as planned? Probably not, only time would tell!
The alarm woke us at 5:00 and we left home at 6:00. The drive to Arkaroola
was uneventful and we arrived at 3:00pm. The others arrived a couple of hours
later.
We stayed the night at Arkaroola leaving early the next morning. Our
destination was Mt Fiton ruins, a trip of about 160 kilometres. Not a great
distance, but an intimidating road sign at the Balcanoona junction warned us
that we were heading into remote areas with the next services at Innaminka
409 kilometres away! Later, using a GPS, I was able to calculate that after
all that driving, where we parked the vehicles at the start of the walk was
only 37 kilometres from Arkaroola in a straight line!
From the Balcanoona junction the road heads North East. To the West, not far
away, rising abruptly from the dry flat plain that marks the start of the
Strzelecki Desert, we could see the Northern Flinders Ranges. To the East was
the vast expanse of Lake Frome. Although we couldn't see the lake from the
road we could see the white reflection of the salt lake on the underside of
clouds above the lake.
The road crosses the Adelaide to Moomba gas pipeline in a couple of places.
The only evidence the traveller sees are some signs warning that you are
crossing the buried pipeline and the private maintenance road that runs
parallel to the pipeline.
We stopped at Terrapinna Waterhole. The pool does not hold as much water as it
once did. The "Explore the Flinders Ranges" guide book tells me it's because
clay sediments that sealed the sandy creek bed have been disturbed by scouring
floods allowing water to seep away. However it still attracts lots of birds,
and at least one Dingo, even though the waterhole is inside the Dog Fence.
Mt Babbage was further from the road than we expected. We decided that we
probably didn't have time for the planned ascent, so we drove on to Mt Fiton
ruins. The drive from Arkaroola to Mt Fiton ruins took us just under three
hours. We were travelling in the July school holidays - peak tourist season in
the region, but we saw no other vehicles on the road. We agreed with that road
sign at Balcanoona junction - remote area indeed.
At Mt Fiton ruins we left the road and drove across country on some rough 4
wheel drive tracks to the start of the walk. The Mt Fiton ruins are outside
the area covered by the 1:50,000 maps. We relied on the sketches drawn at
Ian's house that evening some weeks earlier, and the GPS to find our way to
the start. A couple of false starts, and some confusion about which creek was
the Hamilton, cost us at least two wasted hours. We finally arrived at our
destination in the early afternoon.
As a result of the time lost earlier in the afternoon, we decided to set up
camp near the cars and start walking early the next morning.
To fill in what was left of the day, Roger, Chris, Sue and Edward went for a
short walk up the Hamilton Creek. I checked out the cliff that dominated a
bend in the Hamilton. I'm a keen rock climber and this cliff seemed
particularly promising. It's about 30 metres high, with a number of routes on
what looks like good clean rock. It's rock climbing convention that the
climber who discovers a crag gets to name it. The weather that afternoon was
horrible, unseasonably warm, threatening rain, and with a howling North
Westerly wind raising great clouds of dust. So with some help from Chris and
Roger, both William Shakespeare fans, I called the cliff Caliban Crag after a
character from The Tempest.
We started out at 8:30 the next morning, walking up the Hamilton towards the
Plateau. The horrible weather from the day before had gone, and we walked in
perfect Flinders Ranges winter weather, a cool breeze, blue sky and lots of
sunshine. We found the tributary that Ian had called the Granite Creek and
started walking up the creek towards the Plateau.
At 10:00 we found the first waterhole, the water didn't taste particularly
good, but it would do if we couldn't find anything better. Later we walked
into the area covered by the 1:50,000 Yudnamutana map, and were able to
confirm that we had indeed picked the right tributary. At last we were able
to relax a little, I hated trying to navigate without being able to refer to
a decent map.
Our plan was to walk each day until about lunch time, find a suitable camp
site, put up the tents, then explore the surrounding area. Right on schedule
at 12:40 we found a perfect site. A sandy terrace, high enough above the
creek bed to be safe from a flash flood [unlikely in winter], fifty metres
away was a waterhole populated with what I presume are either Purple Spotted
Gudgeon or Desert Goby. The water was clear and tasted good.
That afternoon we took day packs and cameras and climbed the hills to the East
of the creek. From the top the views were tremendous. To the East we could see
Lake Frome, and to North East was Mt Babbage and Mt Hopeless, beyond lay the
Strzelecki Desert. To the South West we could see the rolling hills of the
Mawson Plateau.
Below us in the creek bed I could see what looked like a small patch of
glass, carefully cut into the surrounding rock. The waterhole looked lost in
that arid vastness. I realised what a tenuous hold those small fish had on
life in that isolated pool. It could be months or years between significant
rain in this region, and that waterhole was not spring fed. Later I
calculated it had a surface area of about 100 square metres and an average
depth of about 1 metre. Just one act of carelessness by visitors to this
pool, swimming, bathing with soap or washing dishes with detergent could so
easily destroy those small specks of life.
That evening as we ate our meals around a small camp fire, we watched bats
hunting for insects in the fading light.
The next day we followed the same schedule. We buried the remains of the
previous night's camp fire. Started walking at 8:30, stopped for a short break
at about 10:30 and found another excellent camp site on a sandy terrace
overlooking the creek bed at 12:30.
Walking up the Granite Creek was getting much harder. The catchment is large,
and the creek is subject to enormous but infrequent floods. There is much
evidence as to the amount of water that must roar down the creek. The creek
bed is cut deep into the Plateau rock, exposing large areas of granite and
filling the creek with giant boulders. The granite slabs have been polished
smooth by the combined effect of the flood waters and water born sand and
pebbles. Any areas of soft rock have been eroded away leaving gutters and
deep pools, often populated with fish. We were forced to clamber over, under
and around this natural obstacle course. The heavy rucksacks made progress
particularly difficult.
Our new camp site was particularly striking as we were camped by a deep gorge
dominated by a cliff of perfect red rock, another excellent climbing crag. In
cracks at the base of the cliff were small communities of ferns growing in a
damp, cool micro environment. Below the surface of the water in some of the
waterholes, I found large spiders hunting marine insects. These cleverly
adapted creatures breathe underwater by carrying bubbles of air with them as
they stalk beneath the surface. In the time honoured rock climber's tradition
of choosing obscure names for crags I called the red cliff Aqualung Wall.
That afternoon we climbed the hills to the West of the camp site. By now we
were well into the Plateau, and were surrounded by rolling, boulder strewn
hills, capped by deeply eroded sandstone outcrops. Navigation here without the
GPS would be quite tricky, the hills and creeks all looked very similar. The
country was in drought, and although it still looked good, some of the smaller
shrubs showed signs of stress. They had dropped most of their leaves in an
effort to reduced moisture loss through evaporation. The eucalypts, as always,
seemed to be thriving in this harsh environment. We saw plenty of Euros and
very few feral goats.
We returned to the camp via a tributary that ran into the Granite Creek. At
the junction we found an old saucepan hanging in a tree beside the creek,
probably left there by bushwalkers some years earlier. This was one of the
few signs of human impact on the Plateau that we saw in the entire walk.
Once again, the next day, we followed the same schedule. Buried the remains of
the previous night's camp fire. Started walking at 8:30, stopped for a short
break at about 10:30 and found another excellent camp site on another sandy
terrace overlooking the creek bed at 12:30. Two hundred metres upstream we
found a number of waterholes filled with crystal clear water.
By now walking in the creek was extremely difficult, the GPS allow very
accurate navigation and we discovered we were averaging 600 metres an hour!
Slow progress indeed. The creek here was very interesting. In one place water
had cut a sinuous channel two to three metres deep and about one hundred
metres long, through solid rock. We walked through this channel, carefully
avoiding the deep waterholes cut deep into the floor of the channel.
Surprisingly, I didn't find any fish in this pristine water.
Accurate navigation in this creek without a GPS would be quite challenging.
The junctions with significant tributaries were often quite difficult to spot
as we walked up the creek. Many joined the creek high above us as waterfalls,
evidence of the watercourse was often camouflaged by trees and large
boulders.
That afternoon, after setting up the tents, we packed day packs and walked the
final two kilometres to T Junction Waterhole. Walking without the heavy
rucksacks allowed faster progress. Along the way we passed several large
waterholes. We disturbed a couple of Wedge Tailed Eagles that had come down to
the pools to drink. The unexpectedly slow progress up the Granite Creek had
caused us to abandon our plans to climb Freeling Heights. T Junction was to be
as far as we would go on this trip.
We left early the next morning and started back towards the camp site at
Aqualung Wall. Our progress was so slow we decided to climb out of the creek
and walk across the Plateau. Finding an easy path between those peaks and
creeks was a challenge, so we called on Chris's orienteering skills to
navigate a way back to Aqualung Wall for the final night's camp.
Next morning we left Aqualung Wall and walked back to the Saucepan Junction,
followed the tributary up onto the Plateau and headed for a peak to the West.
Once again this minor tributary turned out to be another gouge, cut deep into
the Plateau, massive boulders made progress difficult. From the summit the
views were tremendous. Our route out was obvious, a triodia covered ridge
leading to a second peak and from there a gentle descent to another tributary
and onto the Hamilton Creek. Once we reached the Hamilton it was a fast two
hour walk down a typical, dry, Flinders Ranges sandy creek to our vehicles at
Caliban crag.
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