SA - South from Coober Pedy

When we left Coober Pedy we were heading south in search of cooler weather. Unfortunately, that was not to be, as the next place we stopped at was Roxby Downs where the temperature was 43 degrees. This town was purpose built by BHP Biliton for the massive Olympic Dam mining plant which produces copper, uranium, silver and gold. The town is very well planned, neat and tidy with some lovely new homes and good infa structure. A small shopping centre, great swimming pool and recreation centre, walking and riding paths all around and through town, make it very peasant out here in the middle of nowhere. Grass is rare so those few homes that have lawns make you look twice as “green” out here is rare. This small area uses 10% of South Australia’s electricity.
We also stopped at Woomera and walked around the museum and saw some of the rockets that Australia and Great Britain had used on the rocket range. The range is flat, barren and takes up 127,000 square miles. Long range missiles and rockets were tested here during the cold war and the launch and tracking of spacecraft in the early days of the space age.
We then drove straight through to Port Augusta which took us about five hours. Port Augusta is at the top of the Spencer Gulf, on the water and we were sure that finally we would find a break in the heat. No such luck. Our two days there were in the low 40’s.
Down town Port Augusta has some beautiful old brick and stone homes.
The area has a power station and a very busy rail yards and is known as “the crossroads” as this is where the major north/south and east/west highway meet.