Australia So Much to See

Sturt National Park

We travelled east on the Wanaaring Road for twenty kilometres before turning north into the Sturt National Park (east side) onto the Gorge Loop Road. 

Turning into Pastoral Heritage Drive, we came to an outdoor museum at the site of the Mount Wood station former Woolscour.   Signs show how the Woolscour worked and relics are still there. 

See a reconstructed horse driven Whim water pumping system. How did the Whim work?  A horse would have to walk around in a circle all day to work the pump.  The harness hitch in photo below right shows where the horse was tethered, and the cable to driving the lifting mechanism is across the top pf the structure.  What a boring life for the poor horse. 

As mechanisation began, the Whim was replaced on stations by the Walking Beam (below), a pumping system powered at first by a stationery steam engine, then by a petrol motor.  

Burke and Wills crossed the area which became Mount Wood Station, and now is the eastern part of the Sturt National Park, on their 1860 – 1861 exploratory journey.  After leaving some of the party at Burke and Wills Camp Menindee Lakes, Burke and Wills continued north on their trek to the Gulf of Carpentaria.  On the return journey, both Burke and Wills died within days of each other, near Coopers Creek.   Altogether, seven men from this expedition died on the journey, and only one man, John King, completed the journey to the Gulf and back to Melbourne, after having been cared for by Aborigines until he was found and helped to return to Melbourne.  King later died of tuberculosis at the age of 34.