140.Pine Hill (YALR)

Things have been easy these last few flights. Unfortunately you no longer have working GPS or VOR equipment. Maintenance will be needed in Alice Springs. Arcraft with analog only instruments should be used. We'll be landing at Pine Hill Airport beside Hanson river, just northwest of Alice Springs. This area is typically used as pastoral property. Small farms periodically pop up alond these outback roads. It's remote, dry and hot.

141.Alice Springs (YBAS)

As with your previous flight you're stuck without GPS or VOR navigation. VFR flight rules apply for Day 141. Welcome to Alice Springs, Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd, wife of the telegraph pioneer Sir Charles Todd. The Arrernte people are the traditional owners of the Alice Springs area and surrounding MacDonnell Ranges.They have lived in the area for at least 30,000 years. World War II brought significant changes to Alice Springs. Prior to the war, Alice Springs was an extremely isolated settlement of fewer than 500 people. During the war, however, the town was an extremely active staging base, and a depot base for the long four-day trip to Darwin. The railway hub in Alice Springs was taken over by military operations and the number of soldiers posted in Alice Springs grew rapidly, as did the number of personnel passing through on their way to and from Darwin.

142.Ayers Rock (YAYE)

As we depart Alice Springs we will cross over Pine Gap, a satellite tracking station. A secretive base thought to be operated by the US military. Then we'll be off on our way to likely the most iconic sites in all of Australia, Ayers Rock (Uluru). Ayers Rock (Uluru) has long been revered by a variety of Australian Aboriginal peoples of the region, who call it Uluru. The rock was sighted in 1872 by explorer Ernest Giles and was first visited by a European the following year, when surveyor William Gosse named it for Sir Henry Ayers, a former South Australian premier. It is the world’s largest monolith. Despite the seeming harshness of the climate, the landscape around the monolith supports a variety of flora and fauna. There are about 400 species of plants in the national park.

143.Mintabie (YMIB)

Off we go past Ayers Rock one last time on our way further south toward Adelaide. We'll be stopping for the night in Mintabie. Mintabie was an opal mining community in South Australia. Aboriginal people were the first people to find opals in the area. The opal fields at Coober Pedy, Mintabie and Andamooka, together with fields in New South Wales, supply most of the world’s precious opal. The estimated value of raw opal production in South Australia was $40.7m in 1997. Most of this is exported to Hong Kong, Japan, the United States of America and Germany. In October 2017, the Government of South Australia estimated that Mintabie's population was about 30 people, although it was acknowledged this increased to about 60 people at different times of the year. During the 1970s and 1980s, it had a population of over 500. Due to a history of drug and alcohol trafficking as well as people living in the town illegally, Mintabie has been closed by the Australian government. It sits abandoned.

144.Prominent Hill (YPMH)

We continue south for the coast on day 144. We're making todays stop in Prominent Hill. The Prominent Hill Mine is a major copper, silver, and gold mine in north west South Australia. The mine, which cost A$1.15 billion to develop, was projected to produce 100,000 tonnes of copper and 115,000 ounces of gold in concentrates per year. The development included an open-pit mine, a conventional grinding and flotation processing plant, a permanent village to accommodate the workforce and construction of a haulage road, power line and bore field. Copper–gold concentrate product from Prominent Hill is transported in 30-tonne containers by road for 120 km (75 mi) to Wirrida siding on the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor, where it is railed to Port Adelaide.

145.Ceduna (YCDU)

This should be the last day of travel through the outback. We'll finally make it to the south coast of Australia to a small town called Ceduna. The town has played an important but minor role in Australia's overall development due to it being a fishing port and a railway hub. Ceduna sits perfectly positioned for whale watching and is a stone’s throw away from some of the Eyre Peninsula’s best beaches. Far enough away from bustling city life to keep its unspoiled environment and solitude, the Far West Coast offers spectacular beaches and cliffs bordered by isolated bushland. It is an uncrowded and uniquely different place to live.

146.port Lincoln (YPLC)

The goal is Adelaide for the holidays. Today our plan is to follow the coast to Port Lincoln. Along the way you will find many potential spots to touch down your wheels and take some epic photos. Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region. The city is reputed to have the most millionaires per capita in Australia. Sealers had visited the area around 1828 and the mainly French whaling ships were fishing the local bays and island regions by the 1820s and up to the 1840s. Port Lincoln, proved popular with pioneers and developers. The first settlers arrived on 19 March 1839 aboard the ships Abeona, Porter and Dorset. In 1840, one year after settlement, the population of Port Lincoln was 270. There were 30 stone houses, a hotel, blacksmith's shop and a store in the Happy Valley area.

147.Adelaide (YPAD)

After a long holiday break we're on our way to Adelaide! The capital city of South Australia, Adelaide was founded in 1836 as the planned capital for the only freely-settled British province in Australia. Early colonial Adelaide was shaped by the diversity and wealth of its free settlers, in contrast to the convict history of other Australian cities. Until the post-war era, it was Australia's third most populated city. It has been noted for its leading examples of religious freedom and progressive political reforms, and became known as the "City of Churches" due to its diversity of faiths. Adelaide and its surrounding area is one of the most seismically active regions in Australia. 

148.Mount Gambier (YMTG)

Welcome to Mount Gambier, SA, Australia. Before British colonisation of South Australia, the Bungandidj (or Boandik) people were the original Aboriginal inhabitants of the area. They referred to the peak of the volcanic mountain as 'ereng balam' or 'egree belum', meaning 'home of the eagle hawk', but the mountain itself was called Berrin. Mount Gambier is the major service centre for the tourism region known as The Limestone Coast. The area has many natural attractions, including volcanic craters, lakes, limestone caves, sinkholes, underground aquifers and stunning Cenotès.

149.RAAF Base point Cook (YMPC)

While today we won't quite be at Melbourne International, we are only a short flight away. Today we are headed to the Royal Australian Air Force Base Point Cook. RAAF Base Point Cook is the birthplace of the Australian Flying Corps and the Royal Australian Air Force. The base is located approximately 26 km (16mi) from Melbourne and 8 km south of RAAF Williams. Point Cook is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. In 1912 the Federal Government purchased a large section of Point Cook with a vision to establish the Australian Flying Corps (AFC). Due to the success of the AFC in the First World War, the AFC was renamed the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and this led to the eventual renaming of the AFC base at Point Cook to RAAF Base Point Cook.