Roxby Downs and Woomera

We were all very pleased to reach Roxby Downs and the caravan park actually had room for us there. That was an interesting phone call– “We didn’t know we were coming here… will we fit? Is there room tonight?”

It was a lovely park, and we fortunately had a spot only a short stroll from the washing line. I made that stroll what felt like a million times while I washed EVERY BLOODY THING in the bus! All the sheets on all of our beds were done immediately so we had somewhere to sleep. Then about 15 loads of washing all up – thank goodness it was so hot that each load dried in about 2 hours on the line.

We spent that first day washing. I mopped the floor 3 times but it didn’t really feel clean until the next day after I had borrowed the park vacuum to do the carpets. Our super little Dyson just wasn’t big enough to do all the floors AND the ceilings and inside our back cupboard. Upon reflection, there is a lot of carpet in this bus. The kids were wonderfully helpful for the first 1.5 hours, until the novelty wore off. They did wipe down the entire kitchen and took all the cushions outside to beat the dust off.

The second day was perfectly timed for the Friday tour of the Olympic Dam mine. What a fluke! We were only planning on staying one night, but extended it to two after we heard about the tour. The tour starts with a couple of DVDs in the Visitor’s Centre, which take you behind the scenes and underground. They were great and gave the kids (and us) more of an insight into what they do there. Then we all (group of 20 or so) got onto a tour bus and went for a drive around the facility. Dunc loved being a passenger in a bus for once! The most impressive bit for the kids was learning that everyone has to shower and wash their hair before leaving work at the end of their shift, due to the fact that they are a uranium processing facility. We even had to wash the bus wheels before we could leave.

The town of Roxby Downs was created by the BHP only 25 years ago and it looks very much like a created town. The streets are all planned and the shops and municipal buildings are all very new. Its now run by a local council just like any other town in South Australia.

So it was a great segue to Woomera, a military-built town. We found a Bertha-sized park outside the Visitor’s Centre and explored the town. Being a weekend, the Museum was closed (?!) but the Visitor’s Centre had a fantastic museum of its own. We learnt all about Les Beadell, who surveyed the town and highways in the 1950s and 60s. What a fascinating man! We also went through the displays on the missiles and rockets – I think we spent hours in there. After learning about all the different missiles, we made our way over the road to the missile park to see them in real life.

After a stroll around the missiles in the heat, we recovered in the air conditioning with a family game of 10 pin bowling at the Visitors Centre - the benefits of a town where the US military were seconded! Mind you, the bowling alley was slightly antique. As were the shoes… We then headed on 8km further down the road, staying at a free camp roadside stop in Pimba for the night.