Back Roads on ABC TV -In the series return, Heather Ewart takes an epic journey on the remote and historic Strzelecki Track in South Australia.
Starting near Lyndhurst, Heather witnesses a way of life that’s remained unchanged for decades.
The 450-kilometre track runs up to Innamincka, near the Queensland border. After years of driving on the dirt, the track is now being gradually sealed, and for those who live along its stretches, life is slowly changing.
At the ghost town of Farina, once a bustling centre where drovers brought cattle along the track to take them to Adelaide on the train, Heather sees how it springs to life for two months every year, powered by an army of grey nomad volunteers, who restore the sandstone buildings.
They have even brought the town’s original underground oven back to life to run a delicious bakery to pay for it all. Bread, cakes and four-wheel drives have now replaced Afghan camel drivers and cattle trains.
Historically Afghan camel drivers were common in these parts, and today their descendants, such as Frank Wilson, still live near the track.
Heather shares a yarn with Frank, whose grandfather was an Afghan camel driver and grandmother was Aboriginal.
They were forced to go on the run from Western Australia where their marriage was forbidden. Eventually they were allowed to marry in South Australia and went on to have five children.
Heather also meets a young family at Lyndhurst Station, Adam and Kate Litchfield and their two children. Adam grew up on the track but it’s a major life change for Sydney born Kate, a veterinarian, who now helps run the 3,5000 square kilometre property.
Production credit: Executive Producer, Brigid Donovan.
Back Roads – Monday 3 July, 2023 at 8pm on ABC and ABC iview (episode 9)
TV Central ABC content HERE
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