ANCIENT IKARA
Did life on Earth begin in the heart of South Australia’s Outback? Head out on an expedition withOutback Spirit to find out.
WORDS Carolyne Jasinski
PHOTOGRAPHY Grant Hunt Photography, Maxime Coquard, Jonathon Cami, SA Tourism
When you see the 3D model of Wilpena Pound at Stokes Hill Lookout or take a scenic flight over this geological wonder, the Aboriginal serpentine description of its origin makes perfect sense. According to Dreaming stories of the traditional owners, the Adnyamathanha people, the Pound walls are actually the bodies of two intertwined Akurra (giant serpents). On the southern rim of the Pound lies the male snake and on the north is the female, with her head at St Mary Peak.
Geologically speaking, Wilpena Pound is a giant amphitheatre, hollowed out by time and erosion. Located in South Australia’s Ikara-Flinders Ranges, about 430km north of Adelaide (tarntanya), it’s the heart of an ancient landscape of rugged mountain ranges and dramatic gorges. This is Ikara – a meeting place for generations of First Nations people. It’s the heart of the South Australian Outback.
But to the Adnyamathanha people, the Flinders Ranges are so much more. They believe this is where life on Earth began. Thousands of years of rich Aboriginal heritage add spirituality to this landscape – a feeling you only get with your feet planted firmly on the ground, surrounded by the spirits of Aboriginal ancestors who will live on forever.
One of the best ways to see and “feel” Wilpena Pound is on an Outback Spirit South Australian tour. Outback Spirit’s luxury 4WD buses take guests in, around and through the Flinders Ranges. The tour stops at Wilpena Pound Resort, the only accommodation located within Ikara Flinders Ranges National Park. There are scenic flights for a bird’s-eye view of the ranges and plenty of self-guided hikes to get among the wilderness and wildlife. One walk leads to the old Hill homestead – the base for what was a huge sheep station until persistent drought forced the station owners to move further south. In the hills above the homestead, Wangara Lookout offers views of a forest of cypress and tall redgums that fill the Pound floor. It’s hard to imagine that 100 years ago, this was grazing country.
Old Wilpena Station offers another glimpse into the past. It was a working station for 135 years. Built in 1860, the stone homestead with a detached kitchen and stone cellar is one of the oldest surviving homesteads in the Flinders Ranges. The station is full of relics of pine and pug buildings made of pine trunks with a mix of mud and straw filling the gaps. When fortunes improved for those early pioneers, so did dwellings, then made from stone. Old storerooms, stables, a blacksmith workshop and sheds full of tools and buggies and rusting farm equipment, stand proud next to towering gums that have survived for hundreds of years.
These trees are the perfect symbol of survival in the harsh Australian Bush. One of the best examples in the Flinders Ranges is the Cazneaux Tree just outside the Wilpena Pound entrance. When Harold Cazneaux photographed this tree in 1937, he said: “The passing of the years has left it scarred and marked by the elements – storm, fire, water. Unconquered, it speaks to us of a Spirit of Endurance. Although aged, its widespread limbs speak of a vitality that will carry on for many more years.”
Once you’ve experienced Wilpena Pound, Outback Spirit goes even deeper into the Flinders Ranges to Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. Founded by Reg and Griselda Sprigg in 1968, the property is the first Flinders Ranges tourism venue to achieve Advanced Ecotourism Certification. Arkaroola is one of the best places to see the rare yellow-footed rock wallabies and is an International Dark Sky Sanctuary. You can join the Under the Stars experience or tour one of the observatories. Arkaroola is also home to the famous Ridgetop Tour. If you’ve ever wondered what is beyond those endless layers of craggy ridgetops that reach out to the horizon, this tour reveals all. Safari-style 4WDs take guests on a wild trek through the ranges with guides explaining how they were formed more than 800 million years ago. But Reg Sprigg has an even more important claim to fame. In 1946, the keen geologist found unique imprints in the ancient seabeds of the Ediacaran Hills.
It took decades to prove but those imprints turned out to be fossils of the earliest known signs of animal life on Earth. Proof that life did, indeed, begin in the Flinders Ranges. How cool that science supports what the Aboriginal people have believed for thousands of years.
THE DETAILS
TOUR
The grandeur of South Australia’s landscapes is what makes this part of Australia so special – from the Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound to Kati Thanda – Lake Eyre National Park, Australia’s largest salt lake, and Kangaroo Island, a sanctuary for sea lions and fur seals and home to the Remarkable Rocks. There’s so much to see in SA and the best way to experience it is on one of Outback Spirit’s three 2025 adventure tours.