It’s not every day that you get to sleep in the coiled embrace of the petrified remains of two giant snakes. However, you can do just so at the Ikara Safari Camp at Wilpena Pound Resort in South Australia’s Northern Flinders Ranges.
According to Adnyamathanha Dreaming (the aboriginal people of the Northern Flinders Ranges), everything was created at the beginning of the world by giant half-human creatures who formed the landscape—the hills, creeks, gorges and mountains, and all of the animals and people.
Long before the coming of white settlers to Wilpena, there was an old Kingfisher Man called Yurlu who lived in the west near Kuyani territory. He journeyed south from his home at Kakarlpunha (Termination Hill) to attend an important Malkada (corroboree) at Ikara (Wilpena Pound). On the way, Yurlu stopped to light a big signal fire to inform his people that he was coming. The charcoal of that fire remains today in the form of the massive coal deposits that have been mined for decades at Leigh Creek.
Passing through Brachina Gorge on his way to the ceremony, Yurlu saw two giant serpents (Akurra) travelling in the same direction. The snakes scared him and he hid behind low hills until they passed. The corroboree was well underway when Yurlu walked in to Ikara and the people were unaware of the arrival of unwanted guests: The giant serpents that had entered the pound through another gap, and secretively slid up to the ceremony in the darkness. Yurlu acted quickly to try to save his people, snatching a fire stick from Walha, the Wild Turkey Man, and throwing it up into the night sky. That burning stick became the red star, Wildu (Mars).
To their horror, the light did not scare the giant snakes. It only served to illuminate the people’s fate. The Akurra surrounded the Aborigines in their giant coils and set about swallowing every human they could. Yurlu and the Wild Turkey Man escaped, both fleeing to the south. The two Akurra (male and female) were so bloated by the feast that they coiled up, and died.
Their bodies form the high, red rock and quartzite walls of the pound, the ancient horizontally and vertically fractured and cracked surfaces still to this day looking like giant, reptilian scales.
It is said that St Mary Peak is the head of Ngaarrimudlunha, the female Akurra.
Today, there are no unwanted guests at the award-winning Ikara Safari Camp and nobody gets eaten by giant snakes in Wilpena Pound, but you do have to watch out for their ancestors.
Here, you can enjoy the full “glamping” experience in a tent with a king-size bed, en-suite bathroom and air-conditioning, something Yurlu couldn’t imagine in his wildest dreamings.
But today’s guests can still enjoy some of the Kingfisher Man’s most profound experiences.
Hearing the sound of the breeze as it sighs through the stands of native pine in the late afternoon, carrying on the wind their dry, resinous perfume to the four corners of the pound. Nearby, a mother emu and her six large chicks hunt for insects in the dry grass.
Listening to the melancholy, but endearing, cry of the crows, which echo off the rocky buttresses as the big, black birds lazily flap to their next roost.
Watching quietly as a wedge-tailed eagle circles above, riding the uplift created by the jagged rock walls. The red cliffs contrast against the deep blue sky as if cut out by a pair of giant scissors.
On the tent-front deck at Ikara, you can enjoy a glass of good Clare Valley wine while watching the colours of the cliffs change as the sun drops down the western sky to bring on the evening, followed by the glittering carpet of stars, which is the northern Flinders’ night sky. You might even see the red star, Wildu, created by Yurlu when he threw that fire stick into the heavens, all those aeons ago.
Fast Facts
- Wilpena Pound Resort is a five-to-six hour drive from Adelaide on good roads.
- The 471km drive through the Barossa Valley and Clare Valley, through Orroroo and on to Wilpena, takes in some of South Australia’s most famous food and wine country.
- Weekend air packages are also available, flying from Adelaide to Wilpena via Olympic Dam Airport, which include scenic air tours, meals, and two nights of accommodation, priced from $738 per person, per night.
- The best time for bushwalking in Wilpena Pound, which covers 136 square kilometres, is from April to October. There are four walks and 14 hikes within the park for people of all ages and fitness levels, including children.
- A one night stay at Ikara Safari Camp, including breakfast is priced from $298 per night.
- Three-night packages are also available to stay in the 60-room resort, including breakfasts daily, with some chalet accommodation, including a kitchenette.
- The nearby Wilpena Pound Campground has 50 hectares of powered and unpowered campsites, laundry, shower and toilet facilities.
For more information, visit Ikara Safari Camp or Wilpena Pound Resort
The dreaming continues
In 2012, the Adnyamathanha Tribal Lands Association partnered with Indigenous Business Australia to buy the Wilpena Pound Resort for $6.6 million. Today, nearly half of the resort’s 40-odd staff are indigenous, with hotel giant Accor, which manages nearly 3,800 hotels and resorts in 92 countries around the world, having taken up the contract to manage the Wilpena complex in March, 2015.
The Adnyamathanha people also co-manage the surrounding Flinders Ranges National Park with the National Parks and Wildlife Department, and staff the Wilpena Visitor Centre, which is the trailhead for bushwalking. The Adnyamathanha continue to work to preserve the land, and are currently involved with the State Environment Department and the Foundation for Endangered Animals in a $1.7 million, five-year project to help to save native quolls from extinction, and to re-introduce them into the Flinders Ranges.
Photo Credits
Caricature of Yurlu the Kingfisher Man and Walha the Wild Turkey Man in Wilpena Pound – By Vincent Ross, All Rights Reserved
Caricature of Yurlu the Kingfisher Man in Wilpena Pound – By Vincent Ross, All Rights Reserved
All other photos by Wayne Smith at SA Tourism, All Rights Reserved
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