My Five-Star Resort Vacation in Oodnadatta

Who woulda thunk?

I had a great time of rest in Oodnadatta. I spent 2 days at the Oodnadatta Hotel there and it felt like I was at a major vacation resort. It was the place I needed to fully recover from the cold, spend some quiet time to think and blog, and organize myself for continuing on. The only thing is– it’s in a dying railroad town.

When I first pulled into Oodnadatta, I thought, “This is quite a dumpy town.” That night, I tented in a caravan park called the Pink Roadhouse, and it was, shall we say, not in the best of conditions. I was ready to head off again in the morning.

Then I went to have dinner at the pub down the street, located in the place called Transcontinental Hotel, with history dating back to 1899. The bar lady was courteous, and when the manager brought out my meal and I said “Thank you,” he replied with a “Thank you“. The hamburger meal (they tend to only have big meat dishes only in the outback) was nicely presented, and I ate in a refreshingly presented dining room with pretty wainscotting. There was a sense of civility, unlike most places I encountered in the last few weeks. (And it had wi-fi, a rarity in these parts.) At that point, I decided to spend the next night renting a room there. And it was cheaper than the motel rooms I rented along the Stuart Highway!

It was a very quiet stay. Primarily because I was the only one there! Not good for their business, I know, but very good for my stay there. I had the whole serene place to myself.

On top of that, the manager David (he was the only full-time staff) offered the best of service. It was a full five-star treatment. I had asked about the Muslim cemetery that was supposed to be somewhere in Oodnadatta, but which I couldn’t find when I biked around the town. In the early twentieth century, camels were needed to transport all kinds of goods, and men from the Middle East (they were from various countries, but in Australia, they were all known as Afghans) were needed to handle the camels. They were Muslim, and Oodnadatta had a cemetery for these Muslim men. Oodnadatta, in its heyday, was a major stopping point for these cameleers, and many stayed in Oodnadatta as their base.

In any case, David also didn’t know where the cemetery was. Hardly anyone asks to see the cemetery, it seems. (Most go to the the Railroad Museum because Oodnadatta was a huge railroad town.) But a few hours later, David came up to me and said, “I’ll take you up to the cemetery, if you like.” It seems he asked others where the cemetery was, drove there to check it out, and came back to let me know where it was. And offered to take me there. What service!

So off we went.

After seeing the Muslim cemetery, he took me to see other sites around Oodnadatta which I had missed because it was outside the town proper. And since I was the only hotel client at the time, he gave me a full tour service. One couldn’t ask for a better tour! It beats going out on those huge tour buses with tens of other tourists.

To me, I did want to see Oodnadatta more than any “world-acclaimed” tourist spots around the “Red Centre.” I was interested in the Muslim presence there. I learned about the Chinese family (found in the museum) who ran the grocery story which provided the food for the town. I learned about the UAM (United Aboriginal Mission) which also drove some of the thrust into aboriginal communities. These facts just seemed much more interesting than seeing, say, Glen Helen Gorge which people say you ought to see.

Today, Oodnadatta is a mostly aboriginal community with a few services on main street to catch the traveling people on the Oodnadatta Track. Aside from some junky houses on main street, it seems to have fairly decent housing which the indigenous live in, a decent school, good community services, and– most important in my view– nothing that demarks the aboriginal section with a “Keep Out.”

Even before I left the U.S., I made a point to end up in Oodnadatta, simply because the name had a nice ring to it. (see here). It was well worth the stay.