Heysen was right: Flinders Ranges is a magical place

From 1926-1933 its gum trees and arid landscape became the focus of his paintings. He captured in watercolours and oils the sharp profiles of the hills, the light, and the intense colours as no painter had done before.

In his observations to others he described the landscape as being “dateless, frozen in time”.

Visitors to the Ikara Flinders Ranges National Park will find the landscape largely unchanged from Heysen’s day. Today the national park protects more than 90,000 hectares and incorporates the majestic Wilpena Pound, gorges and fossil sites as well as significant sites for the Adnyamathanha traditional owners.

One thing that has disappeared from the park since Heysen first picked up a paintbrush are the sheep introduced by the early European settlers.

Instead there is abundant native wildlife, particularly emus and kangaroos such as the euro, a small dainty kangaroo with long fur and a black nose.

And thanks to Bounceback, a large-scale conservation program, the once extinct (in the Flinders Ranges) western quoll (Idnya) and the brushtail possum (Virlda) have been reintroduced.

The yellow-footed rock wallaby populations, hunted by early European settlers for their skins, are also recovering thanks to a determined reduction in goat, fox and rabbit numbers, and native vegetation is being regenerated.

On our 4WD tour with Adnyamathanha guide Jimmy we scanned the ridges in vain for a sight of the elusive wallaby. “Don’t you worry, they’re there, they will be watching us,” Jimmy said.

The reintroduction of the native species has come at a cost for the feral goat, which was introduced as a source of meat.

Goats are being eradicated from the national park so as not to deprive native wildlife of feed and water. It was hard not to feel sad for the handsome black goats whose numbers are now dwindling due to regular culls.

The legacy of European settlement can be seen in other places at Wilpena Pound. Yura Udnyu, a guided cultural walk led by Adnyamathanha elder Mick McKenzie, is a leisurely 3km meander along a flat track to old Wilpena Station, one of South Australia’s oldest and best-preserved pastoral settlements.

A working station for more than 130 years it covered more than 800 square miles in the 1860s.

Today you can explore the old farm buildings, the overgrown cemetery and the garden of the original homestead with its pet cemetery dedicated to its much-loved working dogs.

But it’s not until you do the two-hour walk to Hills Homestead that you fully appreciate the incredible hardships faced by the early settlers. Story boards in front of the two-roomed stone cottage tell a grim story of stock and grain losses, drought and floods.

The Flinders Ranges has some of the best hiking trails and bushwalks in Australia – but your legs can only take you so far. We joined the four-hour Time Travel and Gorgeous Gorges 4WD tour with guide Jimmy, who took us to sites we would have never found on our own, including fossil finds and a magnificent centuries-old four-pronged grass tree.

Jimmy led us to a thin band of sandstone outcropping where, preserved in the rock, is believed to be the first evidence of multi-celled animals (metazoa) on Earth. The fossils, said to be about 550 million years old, lived on the shallow sea floor but were smothered beneath storm sand and preserved as moulds or casts as the sand packed around them and eventually hardened to rock.

An even better perspective of the Flinders Ranges is seen from the air with flights ranging from 20 minutes to all-day operating from the Wilpena Pound Resort airfield. We took a 35-minute early morning flight with pilots Jason Berry and Andrew Booth, flying high over the stands of red river gums and native conifers and completing a circuit of Wilpena Pound with views of the Elder Range, Edeowie Gorge, Heysen Range, the ABC Ranges, Bunyeroo Gorge, Brachina Gorge, St Mary Peak and the Pound Gap.

From the air it’s easy to understand why people travel long distances just to see the rugged bowl of Wilpena Pound created from an ancient mountain range eroded over millions of years.

Spanning about 100km, the sheer size of this magnificent amphitheatre can only truly be appreciated from the air.

There are few places in Australia that have not been dramatically altered with the passing of time. Here the semi-arid landscape is just as Heysen painted it and it will remain that way forever.

WILPENA Pound Resort is a six-hour drive from Adelaide airport with many lovely spots to stop along the way. Alternatively, you can fly from Adelaide to Port Augusta with Rex and take a scenic flight to the resort’s airfield.

The resort’s buildings, developed to accommodate growing numbers of nature lovers, tread lightly on the landscape. There is accommodation to suit all budgets – from camping ($26 for an unpowered site, $39 powered site for two people daily) through to standard, moderate and superior resort accommodation. Top of the range is the Ikara Safari Camp – 13 large safari tents, where you get the experience of camping without touching a tent peg or pole. The spacious tents have a king-size bed, split system air-conditioning/heating, ensuite, fridge and tea and coffee making facilities. You can sit on your front deck looking over the escarpment, cook dinner on your fireplace and wake in the morning to find an emu and his chicks fossicking for food just metres away.

At the resort’s main centre you’ll find a spacious bistro and bar and dining room where the menu incorporates Indigenous flavours and ingredients such as smoked emu bruschetta and wattleseed kangaroo fillet. However, after admiring these native animals on your walks, you may be inclined to pass up on these dinner options.

The resort has a visitors centre and general store that stocks groceries and camping supplies, fuel and firewood. You can pick up a map of the walks – graded easy to strenuous – from the visitor centre and a shuttle bus from there will take you part of the way into the pound if you need to reduce the length of the walks. All guided walks are led by the traditional owners, the Adnyamathanha people.

There is Telstra 4G mobile phone coverage but no WiFi. You will also see a rare sight these days – public payphones.

* Sue Preston was a guest of the South Australian Tourism Commission and Wilpena Pound Resort.