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19th March 2013, 04:55 PM #1SENIOR MEMBER
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mad Dogs and Englishmen. Sturt's Stony Desert
Sturt was the first white explorer to travel to inland Australia. He believed there was an inland sea in the heart of Australia. He was right, but he was 60 million years too late.
His expedition party suffered great hardship and the second in command, Poole, died. They were trapped for 6-7 months in Sturt's Stony Desert, unable to break away from a single remaining billabong (a waterhole in a dry creek bed), and the billabong was drying out.
Here is some of their story.
The Stony Desert is covered in vast Gibber plains. Gibber is the Aboriginal word for 'fist sized throwing rock'. Animals will not walk on these plains unless forced, and to walk one or two kilometres is agony, I tried it.
Originally Posted by Sturt's Diary
In the stony desert, where there are no gibber plains there are just bigger stones. If you find a place to stand where there are no stones at all, then there are Bullock Head Burrs. These are small seed pods with 5-6 hypodermic needle points sticking out, and due to the wonders of evolution in miniature, which ever way they land they always have one needle sticking straight up. Their motto is simple ... 'I may be here a long time, and nothing may happen, but if it does I'm ready'.
They can drive up to 10mm into you and they inject a toxin that stings and the next day causes your arm or leg to throb. If your not careful when you pull them out the tips break off and the toxin works for days. (This is evolution at its most amazing. No doubt the animal picks up the burr, and after a while the toxin can be felt and the animal tries to scrub it off.It falls in a new animal feeding ground. The seed pod has achieved its aim)
So, all in all, Sturt's stony desert is not right up there with the top tourists spots like Ayer's rock and the Tananmi.
Into this desert Sturt took the following:
Originally Posted by Sturt's Diary
Some of these men were colonial prisoners of the Crown, earning their freedom. Please note the boat. Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday Sun. This party took a boat, weighing near a tonne, into the heart of the driest continent on earth in the hope of sailing on an inland sea !!
Originally Posted by Sturt's Diary
The rest of their tale is heart wrenching. They were hard tough men but they were in a desperate situation, attacked by scurvy, and in temperatures that reached 57 C (135 F). The thermometers burst. The last billabong on Preservation creek was evaporating. They had to keep their candles and ink buried in the creek bank to prevent them evaporating.
Originally Posted by Sturt's Diary
Originally Posted by Sturt's Diary
Originally Posted by Sturt's Diary
He calls it misfortune ! And yet, as he set off into this very region the Aboriginal tribal leader, seeing that Sturt would not heed his advice, that he would surely die at this season, had pleaded with him, begged him not to go. At last had physically restrained him, held on to him, held him back .. but Sturt had shook him off. 'Poor wretched starving creatures' Sturt had said in his diary, as he watched them crack Acacia seeds for food, and yet they were getting their Vitamin C and were not the victims of scurvy. Misfortune ?
Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday Sun.
One can only imagine what they thought of Sturt, setting off into the Stony Desert carrying a one tonne boat.
This is 'Depot Glen', the Billabong where Sturt and his men were trapped.
Originally Posted by Sturt's Diary
Sturt's Drawing from his diary. My photos.
more ....
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19th March 2013, 04:56 PM #2SENIOR MEMBER
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And yet, for all the burning heat of the noon day sun ... The Stony desert has its softer, more beautiful moments.
Sunrises & Sunsets
more ...
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19th March 2013, 04:57 PM #3SENIOR MEMBER
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Campfires & Campsites (I'm the skinny bastard)
I built myself a stone-age campfire .. I had a thermal scanner with me .. this fire reached 900 degrees Centigrade. Water boiled in a cast iron teapot (cold) within 90 seconds .. Stone age man knew his business !!
The moon thru Dust storm .....at night. Campfire is reflecting off the underside of the trees.
Commodores go anywhere ... HaaHaa .. (eat ya heart out 4WDrivers)
Milparinka Courthouse ... abandoned
Milparinka Pub ... (AFL Grand Final on TV ... hence the crowd !!)
Tibbooburra and HOT SHOWERS at last .... civilisation after a week on the desert floor ... HaaHaa
Hope you enjoyed Peoples ...
cool bananas ... greg
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19th March 2013, 05:27 PM #4
Which are you Greg??
Which are you Greg??
Mad or a Prisoner.....lol....
Some great photos in that lot, a trip without leaving the desk.
Cheers, crowie..
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19th March 2013, 05:41 PM #5
A man could not travel every square inch of this land in a life time though many have tried. Some areas so inaccessible as considered by those first settlers but men with a dream a vision and heart to go with it took life and limb into opening it up so we may these days be rewarded by such as your journey.
Thanks heaps for the photos and words.
I love the creek/Billabong with trees so entangled trying to drain the last ounce of dampness out of the earth.
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19th March 2013, 10:07 PM #6SENIOR MEMBER
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thanx Crowie .. Much appreciated.
These are deep words/thoughts .. Not spoken lightly either, or so I read. Well written prose .. I suspect your a poet or writer ?
No ... Thank YOU for the words. Cheers muchly ... Greg
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19th March 2013, 10:29 PM #7GOLD MEMBER
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Any chance of enlightenment, regarding the stone age fire?
I googled stone age fire, but basically it was inclusive.
Mick.
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19th March 2013, 10:30 PM #8SENIOR MEMBER
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Thanks for posting, I enjoyed it very much
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19th March 2013, 11:04 PM #9
Beautiful country, great photos and a very entertaining story.
Thanks Greg.
Did you get any of the shiny stuff. I saw the metal detectorsThose were the droids I was looking for.
https://autoblastgates.com.au
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19th March 2013, 11:06 PM #10SENIOR MEMBER
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I'm not an expert. But I like stone age technology and collect stone tools and fossils.
Stone age man tempered rock the same as we temper steel. By experimenting with different layouts i eventually was able to make rock glow red hot .. Could not even pick it up momentarily with welding gloves on.
i researched the 'firepit' as much as I could but very little on layout is available.
My findings: not in any particular order.
Build a stone wall circle. Must be circular. Reflects internal heat back to the centre.
Use iron bark or the next hardest timber you can find.
keep the fir 'choked' on timber so new coals are being created before the lower coal fuel has been exhausted. This way you can get a good 200mm deep layer of coals.
The stone circular wall should be at least 300-400 mm high.
The fire should draw fiercely, and bugger the economics of the fuel bill.
Adjust the air gaps in the stone wall ring with small rocks adding or removing so the draught is constant all round
deflect wind if it is from one direction only by using branches as wind breaks.
After about 2 hrs variable sometimes three I can reach 800 - 900 degrees c on my infra red thermal pocket gun.
replace any rocks that crack or break ( using welding gloves) with harder rocks.
Eventually the whole inner face of the rock wall will glow red ... Truly ... This is not a reflection from the coals.
put a cold cast iron pot full of water in at this point (using welding gloves) ans it will boil in 60-90 seconds.
i am sure with practice I could eventually melt steel in these 'pits' .. Altho I never dig a pit.
Hope this helps
stone age fire tempering
Greg
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19th March 2013, 11:12 PM #11Retro Phrenologist
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Wonderful.
Just wonderful.____________________________________________________________
there are only 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary arithmetic and those that don't.
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19th March 2013, 11:29 PM #12SENIOR MEMBER
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Thank you Shedbound for compliments.
no ... Haahaa ... Tho it is gold country around Milparinka.
My mate Roscoe ... Arthritic and diabetic ... Which makes rough camping hard enough as I have to be camp cook and camp setter-er-upper and take-er-downer, insists on carrying that bloody outdated detector everywhere. It never fits properly anywhere in the cargo, is always in the bloody way ... And never works. When your sitting in the hot sun with screwdrivers and a multi meter, sweat trickling down you everywhere.... harsh words tend to get exchanged. He iz always dreaming of nuggets.
I was fuelling up in Tibbooburra. The windscreen needed cleaning, the tyres checked an the jerries filled with fresh water. I looked around, petrol bowser in hand, Coe was gone. There are only two pubs in Tibboobura and only one with a pokie machine. Thats where I found him ..
Sigh ....
Greg
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19th March 2013, 11:32 PM #13SENIOR MEMBER
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Ta for kind words Avery.
cheers ... Greg
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20th March 2013, 05:10 PM #14GOLD MEMBER
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Greg, many thanks for the explanation and the link, certainly enlightening.
Mick.