Steeped in sand dunes and savannah shrubbery, a trek through the Gawler Ranges is South Australia’s answer to an African safari. Nick Squires took the tour

Late afternoon sunshine casts a soft orange glow on a large khaki tent anchored to a raised timber platform. Inside is a double bed made from rough timber, a pair of canvas camp chairs and a billowing mosquito net.

Outside, a sandy track winds its way between acacia trees and along the side of a salt lake whose shoreline is pock-marked with animal prints.

The savannah landscape suggests it could be one of the many luxury safari lodges that attract well-heeled visitors to southern Africa.

But instead this camp lies on the southern edge of South Australia’s Gawler Ranges National Park, a little known region of red rock, sand dunes, granite pillars and former sheep stations.

“It reminded me of Africa when I first came here,” says Rosemary Woodford Ganf, an English wildlife artist who grew up in Uganda and now helps run Gawler Ranges Wilderness Safaris. “There’s something about the light – and the vegetation is very similar.”

The camp, called Kangaluna, offers a comfortable base from which to explore the Gawler Ranges, one of Australia’s newest national parks.

Owner Geoff Scholz, an ex-farmer who grew up in the area, takes guests on 4WD safaris of the ancient volcanic landscape, which is attracting an increasing number of visitors.

Fractured ranges conceal shady gorges and unusual rock formations, and rolling grassland and mallee woodland shelter a wide range of outback wildlife.

As we bump along an old pastoral station track, a flock of ring-necked parrots erupts from the charred remains of an old tree and a pair of galahs let out piercing shrieks. The noise disturbs a mob of red kangaroos that immediately break cover, their powerful hind legs kicking up puffs of dust as they bound across the plain.

“We also get western greys and yellow-footed rock wallabies,” says Scholz. “Since the sheep were moved off the land the kangaroo population has really come back.”

The first European to set eyes on this part of the continent was the valiant explorer Edward John Eyre, who gave his name to the Eyre Peninsula. He crossed the Gawler Ranges in 1839 and recorded the first sighting of Sturt’s Desert Pea, which he described as “a most splendid creeping plant”. It’s now South Australia’s floral emblem, and the Gawler Ranges are renowned for their spectacular spring display of wildflowers.

Less than 20 years after Eyre’s wanderings, the first pastoral lease was taken up in the area.

Huge sheep stations were established and the park is littered with relics of those days – shearing sheds, old homesteads and barbed wire fences strung between ancient mulga posts.

We hike up a gorge littered with rust-red boulders and flanked by imposing granite outcrops. At the top there are a couple of mysterious holes dug in the sand, a few centimetres of murky water lying at the bottom of each.

“The roos dig them,” says Scholz. “They can smell the water. Sinkholes like these keep them going during drought. There’s a hillside near here with natural springs and the kangaroos have dug out the whole area.”

To the north of the national park lies stunning Lake Gairdner, a dazzling white salt lake set against a backdrop of red rocks and rippling sand dunes. The lake is so flat and large that it’s been used for setting land speed records.

It is part of the four-day safari, as is a visit to Baird Bay on the coast, where you can experience the thrill of swimming with Australian sea lions in crystal clear shallows.

The sea lions live in a colony on Jones Island, at the mouth of the bay, and have become accustomed to interacting with humans.

Along with the rugged landscape and plentiful wildlife of the Gawler Ranges, they provide yet another reason to explore this untamed and largely undiscovered corner of the country.

Open Road e-zine August 2008

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