Another two photos from the roadtrip archives. They are from a 1980s road trip I made to Cambrai and Sedan on the Murray plains on the eastern side of the Mt Lofty Ranges. The picture of Australian history that I had then was a crude colonial one: it valorised the daring and hardship of the explorers looking for inland waters, minerals and vast lush pastures; celebrated the deeds of the pastoral pioneers and heroic bushmen; and held that the Australian economy rode on the sheep’s back.

Nothing about the soil being destroyed by sheep’s hooves. Oh, and Aboriginal culture was flawed because they hadn’t invented the wheel or done anything useful with the land. Nor did they invent the rack, the guillotine, or the gas chamber.

The image below is a pile of iron from the old railway line that went to Sedan starting from around 1919. I came across these ruins whilst I was exploring a few of the backroads around Sedan.

The railway branch line ended at Sedan. There was an old water tower there, which is what attracted my attention as I drove around. This pile of iron was lying on the ground among the few mallee bushes that were left.