Free historical stopover at Koonalda Homestead, South Australia

Barbel wrote into us about one unique site that has been listed with us since Camps 5! 

This was our first crossing of the Nullarbor in 2008.

A lot of people told us the Nullarbor is boring – quite the opposite, we found it most interesting and have crossed it 3 times since. It was also the second year we used Camps.

Somebody told us about Koonalda – an old sheep station on the old Eyre Highway and we went to find it. Absolutely beautiful. It was not only a station but also a repair place and petrol station, the water was harvested from an old underground cave. 

When that collapsed – and I think it did because of explosions and heavy work due to creating the Nullarbor – the station had to be abandoned. The house is still liveable, the sheering shed is there and the old kitchen, as well as hundreds of abandoned cars with dents etc and in the morning the parrots all come to drink from the nightly collected water on the cars. Unbelievable and nowhere are the stars so near the earth.

Now we are 80 and our trips will be shorter and not so far – but Australia is beautiful where ever you go, you just have to look.

From CAMPS: Not 15 kilometres past the homestead and into the park are a range of caverns and sinkholes – with cave systems known around the world for being some of the most extensive systems discovered. Unless you are a caver, please do not explore alone, make sure to have an experienced guide with you.