Mount Wood?

Now, here is a name that I didn't know much about - that is until about a month ago. In fact, if I had noticed it on the map at all, I moved on extremely fast and I never really contemplated spending any time there. Things have changed!

What is Mount Wood? Well, of course, it is firstly a mountain. We are talking Australian outback here, so "mountain" would be a joke in Switzerland - its peak is around 120 metres above the surrounding countryside. It was named in 1842 by Charles Sturt - the first European to see it. It is definately a prominent, despite not being big, hill in the north-west corner of New South Wales. Some forty years later the hill and around 500,000 acres of the surrounding landscape became known as Mount Wood Station, and it was 1890 when the first buildings of the Mount Wood Homestead were constructed. Now a private property of this sort of size is soemthing to stop the Swiss from laughing - but it was never particularly large by Australian standards, even after the owners bought out the next door neighbours - Horton Park.

They apparently bought the property on an 85-year pastoral lease rather than freehold, because the next really significant date in its history is 1972 when the lease expired and the property reverted to state government ownership. They made the decision to not re-lease it, but purchase up three other nearby neighbours and form Sturt National Park - a remarkable 340,000 hectares of remote desert - almost 180 km from east to west and 40 km from north to south. Switzerland please take note! Mount Wood became "historic" - and was converted to a museum and accommodation - none of which really made it any closer to civilisation, but that turns out to be a part of the appeal.

In a month's time, I am taking a group of 30 people in 11 vehicles to stay in the shearers quarters at historic Mount Wood Homestead for three nights, to give us an opportunity to explore this massive national park in our four-wheel drives. Getting there sounds easy - go to Broken Hill, turn north and drive for 360 km. It is a massive, empty, and largely unknown corner of Australia's most populous state, and I am challenged, but looking forward to, discovering more about it.

What's there, you might ask? Answer - not much! I am intregued by the name Mount Wood. It apparently had reasonable stands of scrubby timber when Charles Sturt arrived, but 85 years of pastoral history ensured the clearing and grazing of most of it. 35 years of reserving since has not fixed it - yet.

The internet seems strangely quiet on this corner of Australia - it is apparently outback enough to not get much attention, but not remote or "evocative" enough for those who discover it to make up for the absence of noise. All shall be revealed in a few weeks time!