A Day Trip To See The Aussie Da Vinci
In this overland journey, I travel on a day trip to the Coorong National Park in South Australia. Along the way, located 170km (105miles) from Adelaide is the Aboriginal settlement of Raukkan made famous by indigenous Australian David Unaipon (1872-1967) known as Australia's Leonardo Da Vinci.
My journey started early in the morning, leaving Adelaide before Sunrise. My first stop was at Point Malcolm lighthouse considered to be the smallest lighthouse in Australia and also the southern hemisphere. It is also the only inland lighthouse in Australia. Point Malcolm lighthouse (also known as Mundoo light) operated between 1878 and 1931 to mark the narrow passageway between Lake Albert and Lake Alexandina. Steamers and other boats travelled through carrying much-needed supplies to the isolated farms, homesteads and settlements. Also, travellers between Melbourne and Adelaide took the same route to avoid the long and arduous road trip.
After Point Malcolm, I cross the ferry and head towards Raukkan to pay tribute to David Unaipon. Born on 28 September 1872 at the Point McLay Mission, Unipon was a preacher, author and inventor. By 1909 he had developed a handpiece for shearing. Unipon had a strong yearning to discover the secret of perpetual motion. Between 1909 and 1944 he made patent applications for nine other inventions, including a centrifugal motor, the multi-radial wheel and a mechanical propulsion device. Unfortunately, the patents lapsed. Today David Unipon is honoured on Australia's fifty dollar note. As you will see from the picture below, on to the left of Unipon is the Point McLeay mission chapel and on to the right is the shearing machine he invented.
From Raukkan I move on to a remote location along the Coorong known as Pelican Point where I have lunch, get some quiet time and then head back home.
The Coorong National Park is 50,000 ha in size and was declared a national park in 1966. The Coorong has a distinctive landscape, coastal dune system, lagoons, wetlands and a large variety of birdlife. It is a habitat for several migratory birds and also a place of refuge for birds and other animals during times of drought.
Please watch my video below of my journey and the places I visited. Leave a comment.
Live life to the fullest, it's too short to procrastinate!
Duncan Udawatta
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You get to some interesting places! Are you travelling on your own?
Most of the time I travel with my wife.
Very remote places I travel in a convoy of other overlanders because some places can be very remote here in Aus.
This particular trip I did on my own as my wife had other commitments.
Here is a link to a post I did on how vast and remote some places in Aus is.
https://steemit.com/travel/@overlandjournals/vastness-of-australia-for-overlanding
Hiya, just swinging by to let you know that this post made the Honorable mentions list in today's Travel Digest!
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