Good Morning Wycliffe
Well!
Low 15°c (59°F) – High 30°c
(86°F)
Up early this morning to catch the first light and it was certainly
worth the effort, a beautiful warm morning and the temperature rose pretty
quickly. Even though the park isn’t
exactly pristine we decided to stay an extra night – well mostly because there
is another NRL match tonight for the Storm and there would be a sad husband if
there was no reception at our next stop.
The internet is pretty patchy and we currently have really good
reception here so thought to play it safe.
Besides – I can also catch up on a bit more of the Depp vs Heard case
that, I’m sad to say, got me a little hooked before we left.
That said – we haven’t been able to make phone calls now since possibly
around Port Augusta as after we left there we both have been receiving Telstra text
messages periodically saying that there is no 3G service in this area (wherever
we happened to be at the time) and so we can only message or browse the
internet/email etc. We’ll look into our
options with that once we reach Darwin as we will no doubt experience the same
as we make our way through Western Australia.
Wycliffe Well apparently started off as a market garden in the war
years, and was taken on by Lew Farkas who thought he would be there for a 5
year stint and ended up staying for 25 years before selling up and moving to
Alice Springs in 2009. In those early
years, British Petroleum, or BP as it became known in Australia, put a petrol
bowser in so it converted more towards a roadhouse and from there Lew sunk
about $4mil over the 25 years into making improvements to the park creating an
Alien Theme Park until he sold it in 2009.
Since then it has had at least 3 different owners, currently owned by
three young East Asian men who came to Australia in 2013 to study and ended up
at Wycliffe.
Honestly Lew would probably cry now as in the two days we’ve been here
the park has had no love from the people running it including picking up
rubbish that is just blowing around the ground, emptying any bins, and even
when the gate fell off the front it was tossed to the ground nearby. Several of the toilet blocks have “closed for
cleaning” signs at the door, but it’s merely a rouse to make campers use one
particular toilet block near the roadhouse and even the Alien themed props
right next to the roadhouse are dirty and in disrepair.
We went for a wander around half of the grounds and it was just one sad
story after another unfortunately. Here
is a couple of links to when the park was up and running https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9vTeF4-_CI
and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn6rPRPh6cU
and then look at my photos below. Just
very sad. The buildings for the most
part are still sound with the exception of parts of the restaurant which have
been trashed, massive windows smashed and pushed out into the courtyard,
electrical fixtures pulled from the ceiling and smashed. But oh!!! the murals!!!!! Safe to say if I win lotto (and it would have
to be a lot of lotto) – this is likely where you would find me!
Most of our day today was just sitting talking, watching a bit of
streamed video, a walk around the park and then watching the NRL match (YAY
team Storm!). Earlier in the day as we
were wandering around the park we ended up at the roadhouse and saw several
carloads of indigenous men purchasing alcohol.
Apparently a few of them only ventured as far up the road as the end of
the service lane and the voices, yelling and fighting only got louder and
louder as the evening wore on. By 9.00pm
things had become quite loud and as I looked outside the caravan I noticed two
police cars had arrived which is no mean feat since the nearest police station
is 37km away. More yelling ensued, a
number of people were taken away and the crowd eventually dispersed. Shortly afterwards a car started up and sped
off down the highway.
Aside from a visit from a very large bull which came for a free drink
at one of the taps that has obviously been leaking for some time (he knew
exactly where to go), things settled down to a quiet evening. We couldn’t help but remember our last visit
in 2016 when even worse scenes occurred one night of a 2 night stay, including
a couple of groups of men and youths walking through the caravan park, using
the facilities that are supposed to be only for park guests, and wandering back
out to their cars via a different path through the caravans. There was also a considerable group of men
and women who sat under the bridge opposite the roadhouse drinking and arguing
for most of the night with no police presence in sight. Since then, we noted, the alcohol sales at
the roadhouse have diminished to just a takeaway and not a bar. You have to wonder if perhaps this is a big
part of the reason why the park isn’t what it once was especially when the old
restaurant etc involved alcohol sales.
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