By Bike

On our journey west, we camp overnight at Koonalda, an abandoned homestead on the Nullarbor Plain, and a graveyard for old, broken down cars.

The homestead is built from sleepers once part of the Indian Pacific rail line, and fitted with doors and windows recovered from the old Eucla Telegraph Station 120 km to the west.

We read a story about Koonalda’s former glory and of how, for some 50 years, it was South Australia’s western most sheep station made possible by drawing water from a nearby limestone cave. It was also a fuel and services stop on the Old Eyre Highway.

We don’t see a story about the dispossession of the traditional lands of the Mirning people who thrived in this part of the Nullarbor and the nearby sea cliffs and rich coastal waters of the Great Australian Bight for more than 50,000 years.