The Oodnadatta Track

Today we had a relatively short drive of 460 klm from Alice to Marla. there’s not much at Marla except a road-house, with a bar and a camp area out the back.

It's claim to fame is it is the start to my favourite track “The Oodnadatta”. Tomorrow we hit it proper,our first stop will be a couple of hundred kilometres down the track to the Todmorden Cattle Station.
Carolyn’s grandfather William Banks returned from the war with lung damage. He was told to go to a warmer climate to assist in recuperation. (Anecdotally) William rode his push-bike from Adelaide up the Oodnadatta Track, and arrived at Todmorden looking for work. He ended up as their head horse trainer, and stayed their for between three and five years. We contacted the owner/manager Douglas Lillecrapp, and asked if we could visit the property to see where grandpa worked over one hundred years ago.
Douglas has invited us in for a coffee and to have a look at the station. In exchange we have prints of some photos that William took during his stay, that we will present to Douglas.
“Todmorden Station is managed by Douglas Lillecrapp, is a vast holding being 716,860 Hectares (7168.6 sq km) in area with an annual average rainfall of 175 millimetres, which is highly variable. It is rangeland country, meaning that the land is too dry and seasons unpredictable for cultivation, but natural vegetation will support successful grazing of beef cattle.
Todmorden Cattle Company is a family partnership, which is involved in Agri-Business. Their principal activity is breeding, growing and marketing predominately commercial Poll Hereford beef cattle. The partners are Gordon Lillecrapp, Mary Lillecrapp, Douglas Lillecrapp, Mary-Anne McMichael”.
Excerpts taken from the Todmorden web site. It’s worth having a look at the history etc.  Click here for a link to the Todmorden web site
After our visit, i will update the Blog and hopefully add some photos. We will be out of phone range for the next 4 or 5 days, so not sure when i will be able to get back on.  Cheers for now.