entering Willow Springs Station

Willow Springs is a 70,000 acres or 28,300 hectares pastoral lease of not far from Wilpena Pound & the Flinders Ranges National Park. The carrying capacity of Willow Springs Station is about one sheep to every sixteen acres or about one sheep to every forty large suburban house blocks. Land value in this area is about $200 a sheep area or $12 an acre. Rainfall varies throughout the property with the homestead averaging approximately 300mm or 12 inches and Moxan and other areas as low as 175mm.

Accommodation on the station varies from private bush campsites each with a fire pit & a long drop toilet, camping with a modern amenities block, to the shearer's quarters, moxan's hut, the overseer's cottage or the old homestead which was the former home of the Reynolds family.

While there is plenty to do from relaxing, bushwalking or birdwatching, 4wding the famous Skytrek via a series of station roads, old mining and goat shooter's tracks & firebreaks, linked together by 26 km of constructed track over Mt Caernarvon completes a circular route.

The track takes you through majestic river gum lined creeks, groves of native pines & black oak, over bluebush plains, through rugged mountain valleys & steep mountain ascents & descents.

With the aid of a self guided map you are able to find highlights such as geological features, aboriginal etchings, natural springs, modern and historic pastoral points of interest like windmills, mustering yards, shepherds hut’s, as well as a large variety of flora and fauna.

Unfortunately we were only able to drive the front 40 kilometres of the Skytrek because of thick bulldust on the track though lack of rain, however with frequent stopping to check out the sites the route took all day. As always our visit coincided with rain,  the first they had for three months.