In late 2008 Great Southern Rail, operators of The Ghan, introduce two innovations: Platinum Service cabin accommodation, which will greatly enhance the choice of top-end accommodation aboard The Ghan; and  Southern Spirit, combining elements of  The Ghan with other epic rail journeys to create a range of 'luxury Australian rail cruises' spanning the continent.

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There are seventy steps to the dining area – and we breathe a sigh of relief that our accommodation is down here, at water level too. No strenuous post-dinner clamberings to our rooms, it seems, which suits me just fine as my agenda for the next few days includes little more than eating and sleeping.

Our view is of water and islands and yachts and wind surfers, so we do what is expected, and dig out the digital and snap a few pics. This seems to have been the response too of one of the first white people known to sight this jumbled group of wooded islands in 1770. There were no digital cameras in those days, so Sydney Parkinson, an artist on HMS Endeavour, sketched it as part of his official record of the voyage.

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This article continues with details of the history and background of Lindeman as well as what is available on the island and includes information on accommodation provided, the food,and activities for all ages.

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(finishes…)

The mix of guests here is broad. One day we share lunch at one of the large tables with a Gold Coast professional couple and their two preschoolers. They had carefully researched the options, looking for something for both themselves and their children, and felt they'd found the perfect combination.

Beside the pool, a rowdy group of senior execs from a major car brand, dressed in equally loud crimson T-shirts, seemed just as happy with the place.

As I go back for another plate of sushi and salad and spaghetti, I figured that maybe this is what gets people in. In ways it's one-size-fits-all, and it has its detractors for that. But for others, there is – just like the endless buffet options – enough to keep almost anyone happy for the duration of their stay.

©Sally Hammond 2006

Picture Credits: ©Gordon Hammond 2006

(Sally and Gordon Hammond travelled as guests of Club Med )

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As the gateway to the Australian Outback, the Flinders Ranges is South Australia’s largest region. Tree-lined gorges, rugged mountain ranges, rolling plains and rich colours mark this ancient land, with four-wheel driving, bushwalking, camping and adventure all part and parcel of the experience. 

Apart from the coastal fringe and a few defined corridors like the Clare Valley, most of South Australia is big-sky country, the true Outback. 

Beyond the Adelaide Hills, the landscape is largely treeless, punctuated instead with stone structures in varying states of repair.  Yet the Clare Valley and Flinders Ranges hold some rare outposts of civilisation: the seductive comforts of Thorn Park Country House or North Bundaleer Estate; fine ‘feral’ dining at the Parachilna Hotel. 

Call into a country general store for lunch and you'll be offered a wedge of Cornish pastie carved out of the original pie dish.  Quandong pie and kangaroo fillet are often on the menu.

Discover the story behind the oldest landscape on the planet.

South Australia’s Flinders Ranges are an uncompromising land: some of the oldest terrain on the planet.  Running eight hundred km. north from St Vincent Gulf, that jagged bite out of the Australian continent, the ancient, sawtooth ridges form a teardrop around the natural bowl of Wilpena Pound, then march towards the desolate salt lakes of the interior.

Farther north, the mountains become still more venerable in the precipitous mineral-rich granite country around Mount Painter.  Geologist Reg Sprigg, a pioneer of educational tourism in Australia, set up a private wildlife sanctuary and tourist lodge on the old Arkaroola Station, providing his domain with an observatory and a generous supply of historic and scientific information displayed on stone cairns.

Arkaroola’s prime attraction is the roller-coaster ride along an old mineral exploration track which hugs the ridge tops of the Northern Flinders Ranges.  Radium Ridge, Uranium Workings, Mount Painter, Mount Gee - these are evocative but eerie names for any student, however pedestrian, who wandered the dusty halls of an Australian school of geology; who dreamt, however idly, of striking it rich during the ephemeral mineral boom of the Seventies.

In the movie Sweet Talker the character played by Bryan Brown blew in to Beachport, intending to take the locals for a ride, then skip town. The town took hold on him and wouldn’t let go.

What fantasies lure fortune-seekers, dreamers and drifters to this pockmarked lunar landscape where men and women retreat und erground from the searing heat and dust storms of the desert summer?

Perhaps half the dwellings are excavated into the stony hillsides, as is the smartest hotel in town, the Desert Cave. Man-made caverns offer an enticing retreat when a searing dust storm is raising hell outdoors. Ironically, the ban on mining within town limits inspires home extensions that go on forever... and ever...

A black-robed Orthodox priest, a trio of white-shirted Chinese, a solidly-built Aborigine and two American tourists joined me on the flight up from Adelaide. That assortment just about encapsulates Coober Pedy, whose 3,500 people are an unholy mix of forty nationalities; the opal buyers from Hong Kong; the Umoona community, descendents of the desert nomads; and tourism, which offers the brightest hope for the future.

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