Sole residents set to leave SA rural ghost town after 35 years
After spending decades drawing travellers into their dusty, Flinders Ranges ghost town, the Dawes are packing their bags and leaving Farina for greener pastures.
Some 650 kilometres north of Adelaide is the town of Farina — named after the Latin and Italian word for ‘flour’ — and founded in the 1870s in what was then believed to be prime wheat growing land.
The once busy town was a centre for copper and silver mining and the railhead for the Central Australia Railway from 1882, a vital livestock transport point for outback drovers.
Now, the town is best known for its ruined buildings – and the state’s most remote bakery that fires up in an underground bunker for two months of the year.
Kevin and Anne Dawes have been the sole residents at the Farina Station property since 1991 working their 22,700-hectare sheep and cattle station surrounded by the ruins of a bygone-era. But the time has come for the couple to put their station on the market and to look forward to travelling the world.
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“It’s got such a rich history. So much has happened here and it was all just falling down, and we thought it was worth saving if we could,” Anne Dawes, a former teacher at Leigh Creek Area School, said.
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At its height, the town was home to 600 people and featured a bakery, grain shop, two breweries, two hotels, a general store, post office and a brothel.
But the Outback weather proved harsh for pastoralists, with years of drought and dust storms making it untenable for farmers, leading to the abandonment of the area in the mid-1900s.
The Farina cemetery was used for the last time in 1960, while the last train to travel through the town in 1980 marked the town’s final death rattle.
Over the past 35 years, the Dawes family have grown Farina from a ghost town to a now popular tourist camping destination — particularly for two months of the year when their unique bakery is up and running.
“When we were first here, there was no tourism, and then we found that people were just camping anywhere and leaving their mess behind,” Dawes said.
“Kevin said, ‘why don’t we put in a bit of a camping area so we can manage where they are’ and it’s grown from there.
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“The tourists have gone from tents to campers to caravans and mobile homes. Now we get more caravans and mobile homes than anything.”
Each year from late May to late July the town is home to SA’s “most remote bakery”, sited in an underground bunker originally used as a meat store in the late-1800s.
Farina Bakery is led and operated by a group of dedicated volunteers and retired bakers. This year’s opening is set for this upcoming Saturday May 23 with all proceeds funnelled back into the town’s restoration efforts.
The Dawes family have assisted the restoration and operation of Farina Bakery, serving on the committee and supporting volunteers for the two months of operation each year.
“It was through us wanting to get something done about the town that was falling down that got the bakery going in the first place,” she said.
“We’ve supported the Farina Restoration Group and helped them with the bakery all along and we have been heavily involved in it.”
Despite the Dawes family no longer being involved, the Farina Restoration Group volunteers will continue to operate the bakery into the future.
The Farina Station owners have also faced their fair share of weather setbacks, with “extra income” from tourism and Anne’s work as a teacher in Leigh Creek assisting during long periods of drought.
The couple will now look to spend more time with the grandchildren and indulge in some travelling of their own.
“Instead of having all the travellers come through and we look after them, we want to join them,” Dawes said.
“The plants, the birds, the animals, as well as the history gave us so much here, and I’d like the new owners to be able to embrace that as well. Love the place like we have and embrace it because it’s got so much to offer.”
Farina Station will head to auction on June 17 at the Port Augusta Golf Club.
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