Arltunga, Ruby Gap - mineral rich country!
We were in the Central Australian Gemfields and most people are there to search for their fortunes. We found a goodly amount of pretty stones but our interest was also in the area. We were quite remote (which is of course the appeal for us) and driving through the countryside made me wonder about the people who first discovered precious minerals here. It was in around the 1880s when, what were thought to be rubies, were found in the area and that started the ‘Ruby Rush’. Later it was decided that they were the less valued garnets – they both look pretty gorgeous to me but …. A couple of years later alluvial gold was found and the gold rush started. Arltunga was the town, the first substantial town in Central Australia, that supported the 100s of miners and fossickers seeking their fortunes in the area. Having experienced the delight of finding garnets I understand the lure for fossickers. They must have been a driven, desperate, passionate lot given they had to travel 600 kms from the Oodnadatta railhead in SA on foot. Supplies were delivered by camel or donkey teams or horse and dray from the new Stuart (now called Alice Springs). A exciting romantic time of discovery, of expectation, but extremely hard on the women that followed their men with children in tow. Yet there is evidence that aborigines have lived in the area for 8000 years - maybe we, and those early prospectors, would do well to listen to their knowledge for living in country.
We tried again a week or so later to get in to see Ruby Gap from Alice Springs. It’s a long way into the mountains along an extremely rough track.
After 30 odd Kms from Arltunga we came to the Hale River along which you have to drive and walk the remaining 9-11 Kms to the Ruby Gap Gorge.
Once out in the riverbed I got a bit nervous about what the journey might be like. Lindsay walked a few 100 m to check out ‘the road’ from the other side of the riverbed (that speck is him returning) we decided that we’d be wise to turn back. The track takes you beside and along the riverbed itself which is deep sand. When we got back to the carpark a Ranger was removing a warning sign about culling feral animals and he confirmed that the road is pretty tough into the gorge and he had been bogged a few times – we felt vindicated to a large degree.
So much for Ruby Gap. It was an interesting drive and one that allowed my mind to drift back to a time 130 odd years ago when fortune seekers flooded the area on foot. Amazing the lure of potential wealth.