The Koonalda Homestead (Old Eyre Highway - South Australia)

[brickpaverr]

On the old road, there used to be an old refrigerator at the turn-off track into Konalda Homestead. I can still "see it" in my minds eye even now, 44 years later. I have a feeling that it was there as a sort of mailbox but then surely any mail would have been delivered direct to the homestead itself. Next time I do the Nullarbor trip again, I'm going to make a point of going via Koonalda & if I can find any trace of Ivy Tanks, I'd love to see that again too. All with the video camera of course.

[FitzyOz]

There is a smaller second car-graveyard about 300 metres east of the homestead building which I didn't film.

[FitzyOz]

SEE GPS CORRDINATES IN POST BELOW:

Accessible in a 2WD car but a caravan might need good ground clearance at the rear. Road might be bad if wet. Homestead is 14km north from turnoff. Not far in there's a choice of a left turn or straight ahead. Go straight ahead. If you go left it meets up with the same road further on anyway but it's rough. At about 13km you reach a T-intersection with old Eyre Highway. You will see ahead and slightly to the left, the entrance road to the homestead.

[FitzyOz]

KOONALDA HOMESTEAD GPS COORDINATES: Turnoff is 94.6km West of Nullabor Roadhouse OR 86.0km East of the Border Village (near WA Border)  Homestead is 14Km North off highway.

Turnoff from Highway:

S 31 degrees 34' mins 32.2" secs

E 129 degrees 54' mins 32.0"secs

Homestead is:

S 31 degrees 27' mins 22.6" secs

E 129 degrees 51' mins 31.1"secs

[FitzyOz]

I believe a permit to stay at Koonalda can be obtained from the Ceduna Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on (08) 8625 3144.

[FitzyOz]

@club1967 Yes I did take a teensy bit of footage inside the homestead but not terribly interesting. Central corridor runs front to back with empty rooms either side. I think green painted walls. In back room an old fridge with 1970's soft drink prices written on the door. The Parks Dept re-roofed the place with new corrugated iron to preserve it. You can stay there (although the nearby Shearer's Hut is apparently better) and you're supposed to get a permit to do so. We didn't stay. Exremely hot.

[FitzyOz]

[Cont'd] First trip through Ivy Shed Tanks was pitch black night having travelled hours on the bad road. Headlights lit only the road, so my mind assumed that there was scrub and trees either side (as it was when I left the daylight). At Ivy Shed Tanks there was a single light bulb swinging above the petrol bowser. When leaving I gingerly reversed to avoid probably trees etc. Next time through in daylight I saw it was completely devoid of anything and I could have driven off in any direction. :)

[FitzyOz]

@brickpaverr One of my trips on the old road was in a then-new 1971 VW Beetle (which I think from memory was the first model with McPherson strut suspension rather than the indestructible torsion bar). The old road destroyed the damping in both struts so the rest of the ride to Perth was like a pogo stick. (Fixed under warranty in Perth). The very first time I went through Ivy Shed Tanks it was very late on a pitch black night - (running out of characters cont'd next comment).

[brickpaverr]

Fantastic to see Koonalda again. Last time that I was there was in January 1968 when I called in with a broken engine/gearbox single mount on my 1964 VW beetle. I put my VW over the pit in the shed there and and used fencing wire (universal clamp) that I had scrounged up, to weave a support under the mount point and anchored on both sides of the VW floor pan. You wouldn't happen to have any footage of "Ivy Tanks" would you?. It was on the old Eyre Highway dirt road and long gone now.

[club1967]

do you have any footage of the homestead itself?

[fitzsimons3]

I kinda regret editing this video for you, since it currently has more views than any one of my videos alone. I mean, well done, Dad!

[saustfootball]

Train travel certainly looked more attractive back then

[indigored1]

Pimp My Ride nightmares are made of this.