Tarcoola – abandoned railway town, back of nowhere.

By Andrew

My local 4WD Club organised a one week trip out to Maralinga and the bomb sites. Although I was unable to take the week off I decided to tag along for a night at Tarcoola.

We left Whyalla at 8am Saturday morning with 9 vehicles in the group. At Iron Knob we met up with the tenth vehicle, driven by Trevor Mk2.

From Iron Knob it was dirt, gravel, sand, clay and salt flat all the way to Tarcoola.

A couple of vehicles in the group

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Mount Ive entrance ornament

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My setup for the trip. Swag would have made more sense……

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West side of Lake Gairdner

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Pub stop at Kingoonya

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Abandoned gold mine at Tarcoola

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Wilgena Pub at Tarcoola, sadly closed for a few years now

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Sunset at Tarcoola railway station

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Abandoned church at Tarcoola

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Piano tuner required

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Old railway cottages at Tarcoola

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After 31 hours, 620kms of dirt and 430 of boring black stuff I was back home in Whyalla. The rest of the group continued on their trip to Maralinga.