South Australia » Brighton

Brighton is a beach resort, offering swimming, surfing and windsurfing, full of Mediterranean restaurants and cafes. You will also find the Windsor Cinema showing new and classic releases, and shops selling wonderful and unique gifts. Nearby is also a great place for you to visit. Kingston Park, blending pine trees with hilltop views and Aboriginal history.

Grange and Henley Beach are great places to eat out, offering traditional as well as stylish cuisine during the day and the evening. West Beach also features a number of shops and open play areas within West Lakes as well as several accommodation places.

Victor Harbour
Victor Harbour is situated overlooking Encounter Bay, aptly given its name after the encounter of Baudin and Flinders in 1802. From 1837 the first whaling station was set up on Rosetta Harbor, with another following shortly on Granite Island, although this stopped in 1864. Just above Rosetta Harbor is The Bluff where you will see a memorial of the encounter.

There are numerous historic buildings around Victor Harbor which you should visit, including the Fountain Inn, St. Augustine’s Church of England and the old Telegraph Station. To find out more about the area and the Southern Right Whales, which travel through Victor Harbor on their migration, head to the Encounter Coast Discovery Centre and the South Australian Whale Centre. You may also be able to see the whales if you stand at the top of The Bluff.

Another attraction around Victor Harbor is Granite Island, the home to lots of little penguins. You can watch them come home after a long day fishing, with guided walks by the Penguin Interpretive Centre. The journey across to the island is also quite special, where you can watch the beautiful scenery from a double decker tram pulled by Clydesdale horses.

Outback
There are plenty of places to stay in Victor Harbor and a reasonable selection of eating outlets. You can easily get to Victor Harbour from Adelaide by the Premier Stateliner bus service. If you want a different journey then hop aboard the pretty SteamRanger from Mt. Barker, or the Steam Cockle Train from Goolwa which runs on Sunday’s.

The South Australian outback stretches from the Flinders Ranges right up to the Northern Territory border. There are several routes which you can take, with the most direct being the sealed Stuart Highway which travels all the way to Darwin. Three other tracks, which are slightly more interesting, but are also unsealed, dusty tracks, include the Birdsville Track, Oodnadatta Track and the Strzelecki Track. Both the Birdsville and Strzelecki Tracks lead into Queensland, whilst the Oodnadatta Track joins up with the Stuart Highway.

When driving along these roads you have to be well prepared, as there are limited stopping places where you can get food, fuel and water. For a lot of the journey you will be travelling through desert including the Great Victoria Desert, the Simpson Desert and the Sturt Stony Desert. Heading along either the Oodnadatta or Birdsville Track, you will also pass the vast Lake Eyre that only fills with water occasionally after rain. When it does rain although the landscape is refreshed, many of the roads are blocked and flooded.

Heading along the Stuart Highway from Port Augusta, you will come across Woomera. Woomera is a unique outback town and large rocket research area. Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) covers a vast 127,00km of land and was used to test long range missiles and rockets during the Cold War. Woomera Village is loacted to the south east. On arrival visitors are recommended to visit The Woomera Heritage Centre and Visitor Information Centre where you will find the Heritage Museum containing interesting displays about the history of Woomera.

You can drive east from Woomera to the mining towns of Roxby Downs and Andamooka. Roxby Downs produces copper, gold, silver and uranium in the Olympic Dam Mine, while Andamooka is an opal mining town. Between April - October there is an interesting tour which takes you around the Olympic Dam Mine.

The next town along the Stuart Highway before you reach the large opal mining town of Coober Pedy is Glendambo. Glendambo is a good stopping place along your journey, and is also the last fuel station before you get to Cooper Pedy. Further north at the Cadney Homestead you can either head east along dirt tracks to join the Oodnadatta Track, passing the gorgeous Painted Desert on the way, or continue a little further north to Marla. Marla is a regional centre along the Ghan railway line, and offers fuel and accommodation. From here you are on your own until just past the Northern Territory border.

Taking the main route through the Flinders Ranges from Port Augusta you will come to Lyndhurst, which is the turning point for the Strzelecki Track. The track leads through the Strzelecki Regional Reserve along the Strzelecki Creek, until it reaches Innamincka on the Southern Queensland border. Make sure you top up with fuel and supplies at both Lyndhurst and Innamincka as between the two places you are alone. Innamincka is where the 1860 Burke and Willis expedition tragically ended, and there are memorials here to mark that. You can also see the Dig Tree (just over the Queensland border) where the team set up camp.

Heading further north along the highway through the Flinders you will come to Maree, which used to be a centre for the Afghan Camel Trains. It is well worth taking a scenic flight over Lake Eyre and if you are lucky you will even see the Maree Man which was etched into the sand in 1998.