Modern visitor centre for Farina

It already has one of Australia’s most unique working bakeries, but now the Farina ghost town, situated 600km north of Adelaide along the old Ghan railway and legendary Oodnadatta Track, is set to become a bona fide tourist attraction with its own visitor and information centre.

The seven-year-old Farina Restoration Group is seeking a Federal Government grant to help build an interactive display centre and museum on the grounds of the long abandoned and crumbling Farina ruins in outback South Australia.

The Farina Restoration Group’s project co-ordinator Tom Harding OAM said the new visitor’s centre to be built on a derelict site next to the old underground bakery, will be the group’s biggest project to date at the former agricultural and railway town that reached a peak of 600 residents in the late-1800s.

“I hope this time next year we will be building an interpretative and education centre and museum, that’s on our next five year plan and it may take two years to do,” explained Harding.

The Farina Restoration Group first started work on preserving the stone buildings and artefacts and erecting story boards in 2009, when a group of 30 caravanners led by Harding, the former owner of a Melbourne caravan repair shop, visited Farina for two weeks.

Now split into four working groups, the volunteers have increased to a record 140 this year, each doing stints of up to two weeks during the cooler June-July winter period.

They stay at the nearby campground which features shower and toilet facilities and limited electricity, run by the owner of the present day Farina station.

The volunteers apply to take part on the group's informative website, and don’t necessarily need particular skills as professional tradespeople are employed, like the two stonemasons this year working on the old police station.

“Caravanners are a very mixed breed with different skills, and those that come out here are always very innovative, have got a spring in their stride and want to do things,” he said.

While receiving various support from government and state caravan industry associations, as well as industry sponsors such as Tebbs Canvas, the major fundraiser currently is from the sale of tasty pies and pastries produced on-site by volunteer bakers in the tiny, wood-fired underground bakery built in 1888, also restored by the group.

While not keeping records, Harding estimates Farina now attracts up to 150 visitors a day in the peak season.

“We’re not sure of the exact number but we know that the caravan park has doubled in visitors over the seven years we’ve been working,” he said.

An all-consuming passion, the Farina restoration is now almost a full-time job for Harding and his committee members, with a succession plan in place to ensure the work continues when Harding is no longer able to.

“We’re here for good. Once people work here they get a twinkle in their eye and they’re coming back.”

PHOTO CAPTION: Tom Harding on the site where the new information centre will be built