Long Ride (Drive) 2014 - Day 15 - Woomera to Peterborough

Woomera to Peterborough
Distance - 312km (7421km)
Weather - Sunny 29 degrees

Woomera the day after was just as deserted as the day before so it didn't take too long to get away after refuelling.

The bulk of the journey would see us drive to Port Augusta.  The road there was pretty straight forward although the amount of road kill did start to increase and in some areas to a dramatic level.

Once there it was amazing to see how the desert literally does meet the sea, it was actually quite an amazing sight.  The same could be said for the town itself, despite what many people had said about Port Augusta it was actually much nicer than what I had expected.

A lot more animals were on the road
out of Woomera.

A quick bite to eat and we were on our way again, there's no doubt I will be back to Port Augusta to have a much better look around but today the plan was to get to Peterborough as quick as possible, we had much to see in this former railway town.

The road out of Woomera.

After the 181 kilometres to Port Augusta the remainder of the drive would be just a short run.  We soon found that this wouldn't be the case as the road took a left turn and head for the hills.  Indeed it was hills, it was the Flinders Ranges, after almost 2 weeks on the road we were going to get some twisty bits of road, bloody hell, not on a bike.  The Love Bus just isn't made for this sort of stuff and was beginning to show the signs.

Horrocks Pass

Stopping at Horrocks Pass to check the view the Love Bus was starting to smell, it was hard to tell whether it was the engine, the brakes or a tyre, either way it was a hot smell.

A decision was made, what could we do?  We continued on regardless of the smell.  The hill roads were great and would've been even better on a bike, unfortunately they didn't last long enough and so we were back on the straights.

An hour or so later we were at Peterborough and after checking into the caravan we set about learning about this town, it's a fascinating story and continues to do so, in fact we didn't realise that this town could be considered one of the most important in Australia's history yet I doubt whether many people know about it.  I certainly didn't.

Peterborough, originally named Peterburg although changed during the years of World War I, was a hub of the South Australian railway network and became an important centre for troop transport during World War II and more importantly livestock and ore transport from the surrounding area.

Steamtown, a great look at the past.

In 1880 it was announced that all of the surrounding rail systems would be linked in Peterborough and so the town began to spring up.  That same year a hotel and post office was erected, soon followed by a school and town hall.

Peterborough soon became very important when silver and iron deposits were discovered in Silverton and Broken Hill, the railway linked the mining towns with the nearest port at Port Pirie, it also became the main link for the Transcontinental Railway and the Ghan Railway.

Steamtown encourages visitors to get
up close and touch the exhibits.

The railyards and linking lines catered for all three rail gauges used through South Australia making it possibly the busiest railyard outside of any capital city, in it's peak 100 trains a day passed through or stopped at Peterborough.

This continued right through the era of steam until in 1970 it was realised that diesel trains were much more efficient and thus the era of steam ended and so did the glory days of Peterborough.

Instead of letting the town become a relic the local people have fought back and started to turn the place into one that leads the way in tourism.  Steamtown opened which showcases the towns history through the railways.  They have a fantastic museum which has many great displays of steam powered transport.  They also have a sound and light show however, I wouldn't really call it that as it really only displays a video production of the history of local rail.  Despite its short comings I would recommend it as many people would actually know a lot of the history, especially that of Australia's war against Turkey before the ANZAC's even landed at Gallipoli.

One of the greatest things about Steamtown is that they get the local school kids to do work experience restoring the exhibits.  They've found that this has given the older kids a sense of ownership and pride in their town which has had a flow on effect to the younger kids and is having great results.  So much so that recently the towns kids raised enough money to build a skate park and the town has no graffiti at all.

Peterborough Motorcycle Museum

We'd been told that while we were in Peterborough we had to visit the local motorcycle museum.  I was surprised that there was one out here and even more surprised to find the varied collection within it.

A 1920's James is one of the bikes in
Peterborough.

Housed in a beautiful old stone church hall the collection had mostly European bikes and that of 50cc although, there were a few larger capacity bikes and even a 100 year old Australian made bike, called 'The Favourite'.

This unique machine was actually built in Peterborough and eventually made it's was to the United States.  A few years ago a bidding war started on eBay for the machine and then under a number of spooky circumstances The Favourite returned to it's home town for much less than it was listed for.  The owners are convinced that this bike wanted to come home.

The owners of the bikes are more than willing to talk about the history of the machines and how they acquired them, their knowledge is outstanding and yet are always looking for peoples stories to further the history of the machines.


While talking to the owners they were both impressed by the Long Ride and what we were doing for men's health, especially as we were 'on' motorbikes.

If you are ever in the mid-north area of South Australia you need to check out Peterborough and it's two fantastic museums, it's well worth spending a day or two in the area.