17 Feb. Shearing Sheds and Limestone Caves: Mt Gambier to Robe.

There was way too much to see and do between Mount Gambier and Robe, but in the interests of making progress toward Adelaide we had to restrict ourselves to a scant two attractions along the way.

Attraction #1:  The Glencoe Shearing Shed.

Back in 1844 brothers Robert and Edward Leake took up large tracts of land along the Coorong and, with both stock and wool being in high demand, lived a very profitable life.  Of the two Robert was the more sensible:  he became very rich, turned himself into a Very Important Person, and died in 1860.  His brother Edward was a much shadier character, to the endless chagrign and frustration of Robert who bought him out in 1855 and then, possibly not giving it quite as much thought as he should have, left it all to him when he died five years later.

Edward promptly set about running the station into disrepair and ruin, but at some point decided to make his mark on history by building the best shearing shed in the history of shearing sheds, so he hired the best builders and architects in his world and did just that. To his credit, he also built a state of the art Shearer's quarters which featured such creature comforts as wood heating and a kitchen, so the shearers may have appreciated him even if few others did.

We paid $4 at the Post Office, collected a very impressive golden key, and had full run of the shearing shed for as long as we wanted.

The shed was constructed out of sandstone from the nearby creek and Edward held a large ball in the shed when construction was completed in 1863.

The woolshed was described as a "commodious and handsome building" with blackwood columns, arched windows, and curved timber braces giving it the "appearance of a church" (at least from the outside).  Inside, I suspect it looked, smelled, and sounded like a shearing shed.

The rails and post ends are smooth from the passage of thousands of sheep.

Edward didn't get to enjoy his shearing shed for too long, dying a scant 4 years after it was completed. He left Glencoe to his daughter who was still a child so t'wasn't long before another brother, Arthur, popped out of the woodwork to adopt the daughter, put Glencoe out to lease, and disappear back to Tasmania which was where the Leakes came from originally.  So there you have it, the story of Glencoe Shearing Shed which is a great place to stop, wander around, and have your morning coffee if you are dawdling between Melbourne and Adelaide.

 

The grounds of the shearing shed.  There's a town of sorts just down the road - well, a Post Office anyway.

 

Leaving the shed behind we found our way to Tantanoola Cave, which was a 'wet' limestone cave as counterpoint to our experience of the dry Engelbrecht cave. Tantanoola Cave was found when a teenager, hunting rabbits, lost his ferret down a hole. Jumping in after said ferret, he realised that the hole was a tad bigger than first anticipated, and went home to collect Dad and big brother for a closer look. The family was nothing if not entrepreneurial and within a short week were charging for tours of the cave. They put out a tarpaulin to facilitate entry, and for the price of admission anyone could slide down the tarp, post themselves through the hole, and gambol about in the cave snapping off stalactites and fragile limestone structures with gay abandon. 

Thankfully some limestone structures survived the souvenir-taking of the 1930s.

 

Parks Vic took over management, lights were installed, and a smart stop put to any stalactite-snapping that might occur.  Although Parks Vic still displayed a touching level of trust when they took us into the cave, gave us a quick spiel, and then cheerily exhorted us to "Don't touch anything. See you in 30 minutes!" And shut the door leaving us in a fantastic fairyland of limestone structures ripe for touching and snapping.

The teenage cave-finder wasn't averse to a little souvenir himself, documenting the date when he snapped off this stalactite and (presumably) took it home.  Thus we know that the little itty bit on the end has taken 83 years to grow, which is why the profligate snapping of stalactites is frowned upon.

 

We are nice, law-abiding people. We did not touch, and snapped only photos. Lots of photos. Here's a few. 

We oohed and aahed, and aahed and oohed. I found a spider web and felt very special when a stalactite chose to drip on me. 

What can a spider in a cave possibly eat?  "You'd be surprised how many insects get in here," said our guide.  Which did surprise me given that the door was only open to let people in or out, and was firmly closed at all other times.  And in order to be eaten the insect then had to fly into the spider's web which was hidden in a teeny corner of a very big cave with lots of teeny corners.

 

Our guide eventually returned to eject us, blinking, back into the sunlight of what was always going to be an anticlimactic rest of the day. We had lunch in Tantanoola, which claimed fame from the elusive Tantanoola Tiger which turned out to be an Assyrian wolf and met it's demise a long time ago.

Tantanoola will do whatever it takes to get people to stop in town.

For the rest of the afternoon we wandered up toward Robe, dipping in to sample the coast wherever we could.

Cape Buffon

South End, just around the corner from Cape Buffon

Beachport, proudly claiming the second-longest jetty in South Australia which is questionable as the end of it is closed off for repairs due to being in danger of succumbing to the sea.

Robe was having a festival (of course!) of some sort, so we had to take accommodation wherever we found it. We ended up at the Robe Holiday Park which, while not beside a beach or lake, was nevertheless a very comfortable park with heaps of space, lots of shade, and not a mosquito to be found.