Following our wonderfully relaxing sojourn in Tanunda, we took the rural idyll to the extreme. A few years ago, my brother-in-law and his partner escaped the rat race to establish an off-grid property in a tiny town with a population of 26 . After driving for two and half hours through mostly flat, barren countryside, we arrived at Stone Hut, named for the old stone cottage built on the banks of the Rocky River in the 1850s by stonemason Thomas Long. Originally a stopover for Cobb & Co mail coaches, the next twenty years saw the village, surveyed in 1874, become a bustling pioneer settlement. There is a lot of history at Stone Hut but not much bustle these days.

We had booked two nights at Stone Hut Cottages, adjacent to the famous bakery where, it is told, ‘visitors flock from miles to experience its delights’. We were so disappointed to find it was closed and, in a fine example of bad timing, re-opened under new management two weeks later. The cottages are scattered in a quiet bushland setting

and ours was very comfortable, spacious and well-equipped.

There are no convenience stores at Stone Hut but the town of Laura (population 552) is only 9km south and Wirrabara (population 353) the same distance to the north. Lunch at The Old Bakery in Wirrabara made up for our earlier dismay along with the discovery of a spectacular work of art painted on silos. To create a new tourist attraction for the town, the state Government offered an $80,000 grant to rejuvenate the non-operational silos, create a viewing area, car park, signage and lighting. In October 2018, Australian street artist Sam Bates (a.k.a. SMUG) created the forestry themed painting in twenty days.

On a side note, when we drove from Geelong to Adelaide we stopped at a town called Kaniva to find a spot to eat our packed lunch. A shaded picnic table was perfect, with a beautiful backdrop of another painted silo. This one celebrates the plants and birds of Little Desert National Park in Victoria and was completed by artist David Lee Pereira in October 2020.

Back to Stone Hut. A post-prandial walk was just the thing to counteract the bakery lunch before an evening indulgence of home-made pizza and beverages. We climbed the dirt road to Mariette’s Lookout, passing aged trees existing symbiotically with a younger generation.

I haven’t been able to find out who Mariette was, presumably a former resident of the town.

The views are expansive but at that time of year, the scenery was not particularly colourful. Being cropping and grazing country, the palette changes with the seasons ( I have seen photos of verdant pastures – really!)

A final attempt at a panorama before wine time called.