The ruins of the town of Farina north of Lyndhurst

Lyndhurst (including Farina)
Historic railway town - now nearly a ghost town
Located 606 km north of Adelaide, Lyndhurst is an historic old railway town which is now nothing more than a few buildings at the crossroads of the Strzelecki and Oodnadatta Tracks.

It is claimed that the Strzelecki Track was pioneered by Harry Redford's famous exercise in cattle duffing which started near Muttaburra in western Queensland.

Redford was born in the Hawkesbury River district of New South Wales in 1842. It is likely that his father was the convict, Thomas Redford, who had arrived in Australia in 1826. By the time he was a teenager Redford was working as a drover and by 1870 he was in Central Western Queensland working on the vast Bowen Downs station which, at the time, covered 1.75 million acres.

At the time Bowen Downs was running a herd of about 70 000 cattle and Redford felt that the station owners wouldn't even know if they were a thousand short on muster. Redford knew that if he stole the cattle (all of which had been branded) that he couldn't sell them in Queensland or New South Wales. So he devised a plan to drove the cattle down the Cooper Creek into South Australia. To understand how daring this plan was it is worth remembering that Burke and Wills had died attempting to make a similar journey only nine years earlier.

Amazingly Redford was successful. He drove the cattle 1300 km to the Blanche Water station in northern South Australia where he sold them for £5000. However the loss was noted and in February 1871 Redford was arrested and taken to Roma to be tried. The charge was 'that Redford, in March 1870, at Bowen Downs station, feloniously did steal 100 bullocks, 100 cows, 100 heifers, 100 steers, one white bull, the property of Morehead and Young.'

From the outset the trial had the elements of an entertainment rather than a serious investigation. Locals, captivated by Redford's consummate bushcraft and daring, packed the courtroom. The white bull stood in a yard outside the courthouse. Forty–one of the forty–eight people called as possible jurors were dismissed because they were prejudiced. The white bull took part in a line up with twenty other bulls and was immediately identified by his owner.

The evidence against Redford was overwhelming. The defence offered no witnesses and complained that Redford had been gaoled without trial.

The jury retired for an hour and then delivered their verdict. The court transcript reads as follows:

Judge: What is your verdict?

Foreman of the Jury: We find the prisoner 'Not Guilty'.

Judge: What?

Foreman of the Jury: Not guilty.

Judge: I thank God, gentlemen, that the verdict is yours, not mine!

It was an example of admiration of bushcraft overwhelming justice and on 5 April 1873 the governor of Queensland ordered that the criminal jurisdiction of the District Court at Roma be withdrawn for two years.

As a result of Redford's 'pioneering' work the Strzelecki Track was opened up and droving down the Cooper Creek to the railhead in South Australia became commonplace.

Things to see:  

Talc Alf with some of his talc carvings at Lyndhurst

Talc Alf
There is very little in Lyndhurst apart from the now famous, thanks to numerous magazine and TV pieces, Talc Alf who, apart from producing some quite interesting, if very stylised, carvings in talc stone, has a highly eccentric explanation for the origins of the alphabet. He has a sheet which explains all his theories but you'll get the idea by knowing that his explanation for the letter 'B' is that it is the second letter in the alphabet and it is the symbol for women. 'A' is for man and 'B' is for woman - women come second in his pecking order. No sexism here. And that 'B' on its side is a visual depiction of a women's breasts. One presumes that lower case 'b' indicates one breasted Amazons. The theory is strong on entertainment value and sexism and rather weak on logic and common sense. Oh, and by the way, when you combine A (man) and B (woman) with 'original' you get, wait for it, Aboriginal - the first men and women.

One of Talc Alf's inspired creations is a new Australian flag where the red, black and gold Aboriginal flag simply replaces the Union Jack.

Talc Alf, his real name is Cornelius Alferink, is located a couple of kilometres out of Lyndhurst on the Innaminka Road. His shop is very clearly signposted.

Ochre Cliffs
5 km north of the town there is a tyre beside the road with the words 'Ochre Cliffs' crudely written on it. A road heads off the main track to the west for a couple of kilometres before reaching a remarkable quarry which is a feast of harsh desert colours - reds, and yellows and browns. It was an important site for the local Aborigines and it is believed that ochre quarried here was traded with other groups of Aborigines who lived hundreds of kilometres away.

Farina
28 km north of Lyndhurst is the ghost town of Farina which is now nothing more than a fascinating collection of ruins with the surrounding countryside littered with old drays, wheels and rusting pieces of equipment. It is strange, while wandering around the ruins, to think that in 1891 the famous French novelist, Jules Verne, wrote a novel titled Mistress Branican in which he depicted a futuristic Farina (the name is Latin for flour) with broad boulevards and gracious squares. Not all of Verne's science fiction predictions were to become realities.

The town did actually grow to a decent size and in before the copper and silver mine closed in 1927 it had a population of around 600. It was also the northern most point in South Australia where wheat was grown. There is no proper signpost at Farina. The only sign is a mailbox beside the road with Farina written on it.

	Tourist Information
	Flinders Ranges & Outback Information Lyndhurst SA Telephone: 1800 633 060 Facsimile: (08) 8223 3995
	Hotels
	Lyndhurst Siding Hotel Main Rd Lyndhurst SA 5731 Telephone: (08) 8675 7781
	Caravan Parks
	Farina Camp Ground Farina Station Lyndhurst SA 5731 Telephone: (08) 8675 7790
	Restaurants
	Lyndhurst Siding Hotel Main Rd Lyndhurst SA 5731 Telephone: (08) 8675 7781