Day 7 - Arltunga

Day 7 - Tuesday - 26/5/2026

Today we drove to the Arltunga Historical Reserve and went to four different places. Before we went there, we stopped at a huge white ghost gum about 20 metres high! 

Ghost Gum



The first place we stopped at in Arltunga was the visitors centre where there was a bunch of old machines that people used to use in the mines at Arltunga like how they would carry ores out of the mines by filling up a bucket with them and then someone pulling it up on a rope. After that we drove to the old Government Works which is where the residents mining for gold at Arltunga in 1930 lived, they did not have much water, and many had a very short life due to the poisoning from cyanide and mercury used in the extraction of the gold. Most of the houses only had one room because of the time and lack of resources, and all the houses were made out of rocks because the trees were not big enough to collect the amount of timber needed to build the houses. 

Grandpa and Suzie Infront of an old building



Continuing on we went to Joker Gorge and did one pointless walk up a steep hill to a mine which was only about 5 metres into the rock. Then we went on a nicer walk into the small gorge where we all sat down on some small rocks and had a good rest. 

Jokers Gorge




Finaly, we drove to the Great Western Mine where we did a short walk to the huge mine where people had been digging for eleven years and found around 18 kilograms of gold. The cave had a lot of rocks on the ground from the previous miners, and it was pretty cool in there. Then we drove home sat around the fire again and toasted marshmallows for the last time at Trephina Gorge.

Inside the Great Western Mine







Comments

  1. joyMay 30, 2026 at 1:14 AM

    I am enjoying reading about your Outback travels. I have fond memories of my time out there.
    Keep up your great work Danny

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 - Alice Springs

Image
Hello my name is Daniel, this blog is about my Australian holiday where I will be traveling with my family (Elvia/mum, Michael/dad, Sebastian/Seb/brother), grandparents (Heather/grandma, Keith/grandpa) and cousins for half of the trip (Charlie, Emily, Mat, Suzie).  Day 1 - Wednesday - 20/5/2026 - 5AM We woke up early at 5AM grabbed our bags and hopped in our uncle's car headed for the airport. We got out of the car went into the airport, printed out our tickets and headed through the baggage check were we and our luggage were scanned for illegal items. After we were given the all clear we headed for the nearby cafe in the airport because we didn't have any breakfast and were pretty hungry. About 30 minutes later we met with our cousins and their mum who were also pretty hungry, we watched a few planes take off until it was time to head to gate 14 for our flight. They led us into the small but loud plane, and we headed off on around a 1-hour flight to Sydney though our plane wa...
Read more

Day 4 - Simpsons Gap & Standley Chasm

Image
Day 4 - Saturday - 23/5/2026 - 10AM Today we drove 30 minutes to Simpsons Gap which is a gorge through the Macdonald Ranges which is close to Alice Springs. At about ten we arrived at the gap where we were joined with a park ranger who told us some interesting facts about the area mainly describing the plants and geology. Throughout the walk through the gap, we were on the lookout for the endangered black-footed rock wallabies and near the end we spotted a few jumping around. The gorge was quite large with rugged cliff faces, huge rocks and flowing water from the huge amounts of rain. After that walk we drove another 15 minutes to a place called Standley Chasm where we had lunch at a cafe and then started the walk into the chasm. At the start of the walk, we were walking in a big valley but as we entered the huge chasm we were surrounded with sheer cliffs only about 5 metres apart. After we finished that walk, we went home and did schoolwork. Black-Footed Rock Wallaby Me & Seb sitt...
Read more

Day 3 - Chambers pillar

Image
Day 2 - Thursday - 21/5/2026  Today was a quiet day as we had to do a lot of organising for the holiday and my parents went shopping for food and me, my brother and cousins did schoolwork with Grandma. Day 3 - Friday - 7AM - 22/5/2026 I woke up at 7 and started to get ready for the 3-hour drive ahead of us. Around 1 and a half hours later I hopped in my grandpa's land cruiser and set off with him, Suzie and Charlie to chambers pillar, everyone else was in my dad's car. The start of the drive wasn't so bad because it was on a bitumen road but shortly after then the road became dirt and bumpy, luckily a grader had driven over the road recently and made all the corrugations a bit less bumpy. The road went through the desert and over a few red sand dunes. We had a stop at a dry riverbed for morning tea that had a waterhole and hundreds of budgerigars were flying around. Once we finally arrived at Chambers Pillar, we went on a 30-minute walk up it where there was a spectacular v...
Read more