PICK THIS PLACE

Yes Stephen, you are “ on the right track” LOL.

Macca.

Sorry Mike G, right track, wrong location.

Macca.

Correct Allan, Beresford Siding. We have camped beside the dam a few times, very pleasant place to camp.

Macca.

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Yes Macca, good spot to camp overnight.
Named after Beresford station, it has particular meaning for me as in the 1960's there was a radar telemetry station nearby associated to rocket firings from Woomera. I never visited it as it was established after my Woomera time.

Please don't camp at the dam. It can upset the cattle.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome.

I would have said Beresford too, Allan & Macca! LOL

After my first Simpson crossing, I camped here, probably 50M in front of the vehicles in Macca's photo, back in early Nov. '15. Blew all night, and it may have been more sensible to camp near the old building, or even the dam.

Was fascinated by the integrity of the old building, and also the Fairy Martins nests, scattered throughout the rooms. One nest, in particular, must have very old & well used. The pile of poo under the nest would have been at least 300mmm high!

Now keen to go back & check out the remains of the radar site............& how the Fairy Martins are going.

Bob

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Not much of the radar site Bob. Just some concrete footings and steps as I recall .
Must have been a miserable posting.
Don't even seem to have taken a photo.

Ooh come on Gazz givvus a look , most of us probably don’t know you, and we all could have a laugh perhaps.
Know of people that went to balls up there, but didn’t get there myself.
Cheers
Shane

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No Gazz, I haven't been to the Curdimurka Ball. And its a pity missing out on photos of the Young Gazza. lol

But I can throw some light on the derivation of Curdimurka.
It is an Aboriginal word meaning "Swamp Monster".

And how do I know this?
Well, when the ICI chemical company had salt fields at Dry Creek in South Australia they built a machine for harvesting the salt which was used in their nearby factory.
This machine was mounted upon a Caterpillar D8 and totally enveloped the tractor. It had a 5m scoop with scroll across the front with elevators to carry the salt up to cross conveyor belt that then deposited the salt onto a lengthy travelling conveyor across the pan to deposit it in heaps at the 'shore'.
It was a monstrous contraption that deserved its name of Curdimurka, Swamp Monster. Wish I had a photo.

The machine was named by the salt field manager Warren Bonython, a conservationist, explorer and author who in 1973 walked, with his friend Charles McCubbin, across the Simpson Desert from north to south. He walked 500k right around Lake Eyre, walked the full length of the Flinders Ranges and at age 75 climbed Mt Kilimanjaro. He was tall, lanky and as tough as they come. He also conceived the Heysen Trail. Not surprisingly, he was acknowledged as the 'authority' on Lake Eyre.

There is much more to Warren, the son of the prominent South Australian Bonython family as can be read here.
I worked at the ICI factory and knew and respected Warren for his bushwalking exploits.

G'day Allan

Extremely interesting !

"There is much more to Warren, the son of the prominent South Australian Bonython family"

I'm guessing Warren was related to Kym Bonython - who I did not know as he was much much older than me but I was a friend of one of Kym's spanner men when he raced at Rowley Park !

Yes - the Bonython's were a very prominent family here in SA - which you would know as a former South Aussie !!

Ah - Rowley Park - remember those days well !

Cheers

Gazz

Hey Shane and Allan

I've scanned the old hard copy photo of a young Gazz into this computer thing but can't seem to attach it here - tips please ??

Not sure, I have similar problems. I do most stuff on my iPad these days, easy if it’s in my photos.
Cheers

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Ah yes Gaz, Kym Bonython was Warren's brother.
Fighter pilot, race car driver and all-round daredevil.
Operator of Rowley Park speedway. Well I remember that place.... the noise and stink of fuel.
Kym was big in the arts.... music and painted. He was very much "Mr Adelaide" in the 1950's. We still have a painting from his North Adelaide gallery.

There ya go fellas - lost a couple hours this morning but made it happen !


Cheers
Gazz

Aaaaah, the good ‘ol days!

What is the apparatus used for and give it a name?

Washing,ironing, feeding, entertaining....

I call mine sweetheart, darling or the navigator if she’s not around

Cheers

Anthony

B1B2, read Allan Bs post at the top of this set of follow ups, he explains what the machines was for and how it got its name.

Macca.

I don't see the name of the contraption anywhere. It is such a clever concept. It only needs one pump to operate.
What is it called?

B1B2,

From what Allan wrote, if I read it correctly, it was a one off purpose built machine for harvesting salt from the salt lakes mounted on a Caterpillar D8, they called it “Curdimurka” the Aboriginal word for swamp monster.

Macca.

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Macca, I'm not sure that B1B2 is talking about the same machine that we are.

It's a Kennicot Water Softener for the boiler water of the Locos at Beresford siding.

A bloke has photographed a Kennicott Water Softener booklet of about 60-odd pages, and put it up on YouTube.

The worst part is, you have to keep stopping the video to read the pages. But it's a rather informative booklet.

Cheers, Ron.

" I'm not sure that B1B2 is talking about the same machine that we are. "

Geez - for a while there I thought you blokes were talking about that debonair beer drinking machine in the far left of the photos :)

Macca - There are photos of the "Curdimurka" Cat D8 salt harvester in the files of the Library of South Australia.

However they are not available on line - they are only available to users in person, at the Library of South Australia.

I find this rather disappointing, the photos of the ICI Chemicals salt harvesting sound quite interesting.

I did manage to blow up a thumbnail image of the "Curdimurka". The image was taken in 1959, and it is copyright by the photographer, Leonard R. Ward.

Trove - ICI Salt Harvesting photos

Cheers, Ron.

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Yes Ron, that is Curdimurka. Thanks for finding that photo.

The guy on the rear platform managed the controls of the scoop and conveyors.
I'm not sure that anyone ever saw the D8 driver. Lol
And I have no idea why the two blokes were strolling behind the machine, except maybe the photo was at commissioning time.

The conveyor at bottom-left of the photo was one of a linear chain of three (or four) that stretched across the pan to the stacker conveyor that heaped the salt.
Quite an interesting operation to watch as the chain of conveyors crept along the pan on creeper tracks after each traverse.

In the earlier days the harvesting was done by hand, shovelling salt into rail trucks similar to those used underground in mines and pulled by horses.
There was also a smaller earlier machine named a Hodag, but I don't know the derivation of its name.

The saltfields are now decommissioned and topsoil is being imported and spread over the pans in order to establish a housing estate.

Thanks Ron for posting the photo.

Yes Allan, obviously not the same “machine”.

As for the structures at Beresford Siding, some people still climb the water softener even though the ladder has had the bottom section removed. They just park under the remaining ladder and use the roof of their vehicle to gain access.

B1B2, sorry for the confusion. It would have been better if you had have started a separate reply with a little more detail as to what you were referring to so, that we would have understood you were asking about the second structure in the original photo. The series of follow ups that you posed your question in was referring to “Curdimurka” so that it where the confusion was.

Macca.