Wednesday 30th June 2021
Yesterday afternoon we were visited by some feral pigs.
Today we went to Mataranka Thermal pools, 5 min up the road from our farm stay.
Mataranka Thermal Pools
Mataranka is a creek that is fed by heated water absorbed, into a huge limestone formation underground, during the wet season.
It runs around 30-34 degrees all year around. It is inhabited by freshwater crocodiles, but is heavily patrolled for tourist safety.
Mataranka history
Mataranka is known as a place where you can swim in hot springs all year round and it is the location of the Australian classic novel We of the Never-Never.
This is Gulf Savannah country – country which was so perfectly described by the playwright Sumner Locke Elliott as “this lonely strip of barren and seemingly endless sandy waste of ant-hills and stunted trees – thick, hot red sand in the winter time and a sea of mud during the dreaded ‘Wet””.
The town, spread along the Stuart Highway, is nothing more than a stopover for those people driving up and down the highway.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans the area had been occupied by the Mangarayi and Yangman First Nation people.
In 1879 Abraham Wallace became the first European to take up land in the area. He overlanded 2,728 cattle from Bowen Downs in Queensland and established Elsey Station.
In 1902 Aeneas Gunn and his wife Jeannie took over the management of Elsey Station. In 1903 Aeneas Gunn died of malarial dysentery.
During World War II Mataranka was the headquarters for over 100 Australian units. It had a hospital, ammunition dumps, abattoirs and a sawmill.
In 1946 Victor Smith, who had been at Mataranka during the war years, returned and established a resort at Mataranka Spring
The Afternoon
We went and fed the animals after lunch. We then played in the dirt with our dinosaurs.
Tomorrow
We are going to visit Bitter Springs.
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