1972 School Magazine

Coober Fedy is just as firmly planted in our memories, but for different reasons. It's an odd little town with a crazly cosmopolitan population and a trade in cake-shops, opals and beer. Everyone lives in dugouts underground where it is 10o cooler, and to the superficial observer, it was the end as far as towns go. But it possesses a character of its own, with the whole town intent on two thlngs-conserving water and digging the opals.

Mount Isa was our first main stopover, and it evoked mixed sentiments among the group's members. Some actually liked the town and most were impressed by the size of the mines complex What everyone did enloy however was an evening visit to lake Moondarra, Mt. Isa's 'beach'. The beauty of the lake is indescribable, and it reminded us very much of English beaches-even down to the grassy, rather than sandy shore, the tall trees and . . . the ice cream parlour. As you can imagine, everyone went mad at the sight of this 'gunky' delicacy, which was by now becoming part of our 'other' staple diet. As we hoed into a delicious barbeque tea (impressive title for the same old stuff), followed by soggy French Fritters only half fried in egg batter and camouflaged with a pile of Golden Syrup, we watched with longing eyes a busload of St. Pauls 'gentlemen' who delicately attacked their plum pudding, ice cream and brandy sauce. Up till now, our diet had consisted of a variety of tinned foods-powdered milk and spuds, tinned meats, peas, puddings, fruits, rice cream-and an unusual product commonly known as Camp Fie. It is a rubbery, jelly-like mess which when allowed to dry out would be ideal for filiing cracks and holes in walls and things around the house. Unfortunately, we had to uncreatively plonk it between stale bread for much of the trip, and it was an interesting exercise trying to get it down the neck. But honestly, the barbeque meals we kved on were enjoyed by most of us, and was it true that the food was beginning to taste better, or had that dreaded disease we had heard of-'paralysis of the palate'- taken its toll of us? There are two other small towns worthy of mention. Kingoonya in Northern South Australia will not readily be forgotten by most us. Because of its quiet and restfully appealing charm (and it was the only town for miles in the desert), our worthy bussie decided to stop just off the 'main street' for tea. The tomato soup was just about ready when a strange car pulled up alongside our litfle f arty and two gentlemen in police uniform informed us that we were illegally camped on Commonwealth Govern- ment property. 'No, officers, we didn't intend to do anything wrong," and during a little tete a tete between these gentlemen and Phil, we leamed that we now had a faulty, or was it missing? fanbelt which prevented us from travelling any further for a while. A little later we were blessed with another visitor. This time it was a doddery, redfaced little railway official who was most indignant that our girls were "making a mess" in the gents facilities at the station. The girls' defence-the dishes would smell funny if they weren't washed somewhere, somehow, some- time.

Although we enjoyed every moment of the whole trip, the three place\we stayed longest at and liked best were Alice Spring\ Ayers Rock and Adelaide. At Alice Springs, we stayed at Heavi-Tree Gap Caravan Park whie(r was quite close to an aboriginal camp. And the hrst\ight, with their corroboree and other bus tours singing round the campfire, we did not get to sleep until very late in the morning. Joy of all joys-we werp allowed to get tlp late and aftm a leisurely breaKa\t, we rolled into town. To our surprise, we found Alice Springs much more civilized and modern than we had expected. The main points of interest for us in"the town were the post bffice where we all eagerly awaited news from home, the John Flynn Memorial Church with its beautiful garden and informal atmosphere, and the ice cream parlour which was deluged by hordes of ice cream deprived Grammar Girls.

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