Parachilna, South Australia
Encyclopedia
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
. It is on the railway line and road between Port Augusta
Port Augusta, South Australia
-Electricity generation:Electricity is generated at the Playford B and Northern power stations from brown coal mined at Leigh Creek, 250 km to the north...
and Leigh Creek
Leigh Creek, South Australia
Leigh Creek is a coal-mining town in the north of South Australia. At the 2006 census, Leigh Creek had a population of 549....
. Today, the Prairie Hotel, railway station, airstrip and a few buildings remain. The road east into the Flinders Ranges
Flinders Ranges
Flinders Ranges is the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts approximately north west of Adelaide. The discontinuous ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna...
leads through Parachilna Gorge, recognised for its scenic beauty, to Blinman
Blinman, South Australia
Blinman is a town deep in the Flinders Ranges, in the mid north of South Australia. It is very small but has the claim of being the highest surveyed town in South Australia. It serves as a base for large acre pastoralists and tourism...
.
The town's name is from the Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
patajilnda, meaning "place of peppermint gum trees". The spelling difference is due to an early translation misreading. The railway station was completed in 1881 as part of the line to Leigh Creek through Beltana
Beltana, South Australia
Beltana is a semi-ghost town north of Adelaide, South Australia. Beltana is known for continuing to exist long after the reasons for its existence had ceased...
. The area was one of the set locations for the Australian feature film, Rabbit Proof Fence
Rabbit-Proof Fence (film)
Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian drama film directed by Phillip Noyce based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara...
.
The Prairie Hotel is the only substantial building, dating from the days when the rail was supreme. Away from the highway, the hotel fronts the railway line and the now derelict station building. The old hotel has been in part retained, in part restored and tastefully extended. There are now no passengers on the line that once ran from Adelaide to Marree
Marree, South Australia
Marree is a small town located in the north of South Australia. It lies North of Adelaide at the junction of the Oodnadatta Track and the Birdsville Track, above sea level. The area is the home of the Dieri people. At the 2006 census, Marree had a population of 70.The town was home to Australia's...
and connected with the old Ghan line to Oodnadatta
Oodnadatta, South Australia
Oodnadatta, South Australia, is a small town surrounded by an area of with cattle stations in arid pastoral rangelands close to the Simpson Desert, north of Adelaide and 112 m above sea level. It can be reached by an unsealed road from Coober Pedy or via the unsealed Oodnadatta Track from...
and Alice Springs
Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory...
. The hotel's patrons all come by car or bus and find their way in from the highway.
The grand old sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
building is now replete with fully modern amenities; amenities that are not so frequent in places further north. Local aboriginal artwork
Australian Aboriginal art
Indigenous Australian art is art made by the Indigenous peoples of Australia and in collaborations between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians . It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, wood carving, rock carving, sculpture, ceremonial clothing and sandpainting...
decorates the lounges and dining room and there are displays of the nearby Ediacaran fossils, relicts of great significance to the fossil community. Apart from the hotel itself, there are 'spill-over' facilities available across the road, by the railway line, varying from self-contained cabins to Atcos and camping areas.
The outstanding feature of establishment is the dining room menu and the 'feral feast
Invasive species in Australia
Invasive species are a serious threat to the native biodiversity of Australia and are an ongoing cost to Australian agriculture.Management and the prevention of the introduction of new invasive species are key environmental and agricultural policy issues for the Australian federal and state...
' on offer. Camel mettwurst
Mettwurst
Mettwurst is a strongly flavoured German sausage made from raw minced pork, which is preserved by curing and smoking. The southern German variety is soft and similar to Teewurst. Braunschweiger mettwurst is smoked somewhat but still soft and spreadable, while other northern German varieties such...
and camel sausage; goat and goat cheese and feral pork form a feral platter available as an antipasto or main meal. Kangaroo and emu, although not feral, are also on the menu, with smoked roo, roo fillet and emu pâté on offer.
The highlight of the evening is the passing of the train returning from Leigh Creek to the north, with coal for the power station at Port Augusta. It consists of some 180 trucks, 3 km in length, and takes about 5 minutes to pass.