LOW RANGE IN THE GAWLER RANGES

MOUNT IVE STATION IS AN EXCELLENT BASE TO ENJOY THE STUNNING SCENERY AND WILDLIFE OF THIS REMOTE AND SPECTACULAR PART OF OUTBACK SOUTH AUSTRALIA

- MIRIAM BLAKER

IT’S like a body massage on wheels and one of the rockiest four-wheel drive tracks we’ve ever been on, not to mention the slowest. We’re rocked and jolted all the way to the top, barely eight kilometres return to reach the summit, which we can see from the station down below, but it takes us more than an hour. Crawling in low range, over shale and red rock, it’s a climb more suited to billy goats. But it gives the D-Max a good workout, and at the top the view is spectacular. A bonus is picking up some hard-to-find 3G Telstra reception.

We’re at Mount Ive Station in the Gawler Ranges, located 200km west of Port Augusta and 500km from Adelaide. It’s remote and far from anywhere, so sporadic phone reception is welcome. We’ve just spent a couple of nights camped within the Gawler Ranges National Park at Yandinga Campground, a great base to explore the park by four-wheel drive. One of the best tracks is the LP track where you’ll find plenty of interesting sites including the important Pondanna Outstation, a relic of early station life. Many years ago, Pondanna was the first site to supply hay throughout this region.

The Gawlers are full of history. It’s a place of ancient ranges, deep gullies, seasonal waterfalls and rocky gorges. It may not be as popular or well-travelled as the Flinders Ranges, but its remote location is perhaps its biggest appeal. Proclaimed a National Park in 2002, the landscape is renowned for its wildlife and geological formations, like the pillars and organ pipes. But there’s so much more to the Gawlers that gets under your skin, in the best possible way.