Returning: Back Roads

Back Roads returns to ABC next Monday with host Heather Ewart visiting the remote and historic Strzelecki Track in South Australia.

Starting near Lyndhurst, SA, Heather witnesses a way of life that’s remained unchanged for decades.

The 450-kilometre track runs up to Innamincka, near the Queensland border.
After years of driving on the dirt, the track is now being gradually sealed, and for those who live along its stretches, life is slowly changing.

At the ghost town of Farina, once a bustling centre where drovers brought cattle along the track to take them to Adelaide on the train, Heather sees how it springs to life for two months every year, powered by an army of grey nomad volunteers, who restore the sandstone buildings. They have even brought the town’s original underground oven back to life to run a delicious bakery to pay for it all. Bread, cakes and four-wheel drives have now replaced Afghan camel drivers and cattle trains.

Part One: 8pm Monday July 3 on ABC.