#2: [20-Jul-07]

06-Jun-2004 -- We decided to attempt our first confluence visit after learning about the Degreee Confluence Project and finding that there was an unvisiting confluence near our planned trip route within South Australia.

This confluence is on the land held by Yerda station, in the Gawler Ranges region of South Australia. The most detailed map we had of the area (1:250,000) showed a track from just out of Tarcoola down towards the station.

Tarcoola was once a gold town but now is little more than a ghost town. Even the pub is now closed.

Our intended track was probably used to access Yerda when Tarcoola was alive, but it looks as though the track has not been used for some years...it was rough and overgrown, but we managed to follow it once we had successfully found it.

The track took us 22km off the main road got us to within 3km of the confluence. Fortunately the surrounding land was relatively flat and scrubby with low salt bushes and gibber stones. So we decided to bush-bash our way closer to the confluence by 4WD...it was challenging, especially given the soft ground caused by recent rains, but we got there.

The 4WD got us to within about 50 metres of the confluence, from there we had to get out of the car and use the GPS to get us to exactly the right spot. It turned out that the confluence point was right on a warren of wombat diggings in the middle of this sheep paddock in the middle of nowhere.

It was an getting late in the afternoon when we arrived, so some of the photos may appear a little drab.

After taking the required photos, we congratulated ourselves on our first confluence visit, backtracked to the main road and headed in the nearest "town" - Kingoonya (Population 9) where we celebrated with a quiet ale and began think about our next confluence visit.

Simon & Rod Chapple
6 June 2004