Produced with CyberLink PowerDirector
Music The silent force by Zero project
www.thegreynomads.com.au/fari...
Few places share the warmth and charm of Farina, a historic railway township in outback South Australia on the Old Ghan Railway line north of Lyndhurst. Accessible via the Oodnadatta Track and within the Eyre Basin, it makes an interesting stopover for those travelling north. Stop overnight or stay for a week and get involved in the restoration activities.
Back in the late 1800’s, Farina was quite a bustling town, with two hotels, a bakery, post office, school, police station, blacksmiths, saddlers, teamsters, churches, storekeepers, train station, cemetery and various other buildings. By 1948, the population had moved to other railway locations and services gradually declined, led by the school closure in 1957.
A restoration project began back in 2008 to restore the decaying ruins. As the story goes, Tom Harding regularly camped at Farina as part of his Caravan Tag-along Tours and became friends with Kevin Dawes, the land owner. As a result, Kevin often visited the camping groups, sharing the history of Farina. Tom became so engaged by the town’s history and how it survived such a remote and tough climate, he committed some of his own money to kick-start a restoration project, working closely with the Dawes family and the South Australian Outback Development Trust
Twelve years on, the project has grown legs with grants, donations and generated income contributing to the ongoing work.
A restoration party is progressively working to restore the town. Each year, an army of volunteers descend onto the area as part of a working group over an 8-week intensive period, with new volunteers arriving each week. It’s a great place to network and meet people with like interests. Split into groups, they work through their allotted tasks