Workhorse South Australia to Northern Territory Tour Diary
In August, the band Workhorse led by multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Harriet Fraser-Barbour put out a surreal and twangy dream-pop debut record No Photographs with Dinosaur City Records. Ahead of the album’s release, the band ventured across 6,000 km of Australian landscapes that shaped the apocalyptic and “queer western” sound playing shows, stopping for regional roadside oddities, and photographing their expedition.
In September of 2021, almost twelve months ago, I cooked up a plan to travel regionally with my band Workhorse. The pandemic was still fresh with live music opportunities still extremely wobbly, and the idea of touring regionally, steering clear of big city metropolises seemed appealing. Cut to eleven months later, and this plan was finally ready to be brought to fruition – with all the complicated schedules of intertwining band mates finally in sync, and a brand new album soon to be out in the world!
This was our journey, from Adelaide to Darwin and back – travelling over 6,000 km from the south coast to the north coast of Australia, with eleven people, one dog, one van and a trailer full of gear in tow. Members of our travel party have each documented different angles of different legs - providing the perfect patchwork of insight into our journey!
Adelaide (South Australia)
Here we are, at my house on Albert Street, Adelaide on the morning of 4th of August 2022 as we prepared to depart! The crew were instructed to meet at my house at 6:30 a.m. to be on the road by 7:30 a.m. but Ricky slept through his alarm and we were a little slow taking off…
Our first destination along the Stuart Highway was the opal mining town of Coober Pedy. I could write a whole essay on Coober Pedy. Land of Star Wars-like landscapes, scattered in mounds of red desert sand excavated and discarded, and a weird township seemingly existing in a time zone all of its own. People live in homes excavated and dug into the ground, where the sun doesn’t reach - but it doesn't matter because they get up to go work in the mines at 3 a.m. anyway. The man working in our hotel seemed pissed off that we had booked online, said he hates computers and wished people would just knock on their door with cash like the old days.
Coober Pedy (South Australia)
(Coober Pedy, South Australia)
I had arranged for us to play at the Italian Miners Club. We would be paid in drinks and Italian food, but we had ordered only one beer before the gruff lady behind the bar said, “no more beers until you’ve finished playing.” I got the impression that she thought we were very entitled city slickers. There was a mixed reception at the gig. Jess Johns Band opened the night and the three young miners sitting in the front row seemed absolutely stoked!
(Workhorse play at the Italo Miners Club, Coober Pedy)
I ate my lasagna and thought “well, it doesn’t get much better than this” because I am easily contented by a free meal and also the sounds of Jess Johns singing. Workhorse played and a couple of people milled about, then the iPod got connected to the PA and the corner of the club suddenly felt like an actual CLUB with fucking 2000s party bangers blasting out from behind the pool tables. Marcus, the manager, poured us all a shot of Fireball and said something indistinguishable along the lines of “this is how you do it in Coober Pedy” but with more swearing and then we all packed the gear back into the trailer; microphones, stands, amps, drums, PA, mixing desk, cables – a whole stage worth of stuff. We would have this down to a fine art by the end of the tour.
(Workhorse play at the Italo Miners Club, Coober Pedy)
The following day we were back on the road, this time gunning it towards the red centre of Australia, Mparntwe (Alice Springs) in time for Ricky Albeck & The Belair Line Band to play a show!
Alice Springs is Australia's equivalent of Las Vegas maybe; a small city in the middle of the desert, in the very centre of Australia with a population of about 25,000. We were greeted with the warmest of welcomes, with the whole community pitching in to help make our gig happen, lending us a PA and gear so that Workhorse could play a sold out show with heaps of new faces and new friends made along the way.
(Workhorse playing at Montes in Alice Springs, and below Ricky Albeck and The Belair Line Band before their gig)
We had a couple of days to explore the wonders of Mparntwe, so we unhitched the trailer and drove alongside the beautiful Macdonnell Ranges, practised our whip cracking in the clay pans and even got our hands on some leftover fireworks from Territory Day!
(Above and below, hanging out in the clay pans outside of Alice Springs, and Ellery Creek Big Hole)
After a couple of days hanging out in Alice Springs, we piled back into the bus and continued our journey up north - with the next pit stop being outback tourist destination Wycliffe Well - UFO CAPITAL OF AUSTRALIA.
I’m not sure why exactly it’s the UFO capital of Australia. The implication is clearly that there is a hive of UFO activity simply buzzing around this tiny truckstop in the middle of nowhere. All I can say is that it doesn’t feel particularly spooky, or like there is anything out of the ordinary that would even attract extraterrestrials to this particular place in the first place. But what would I know? More likely is that it's the capital of UFO-themed merchandise in Australia, and of course we stocked up on alien themed trucker hats, stickers, mugs, and t-shirts.
Daly Waters, Northern Territory
About 500kms north of Wycliffe Well was our next stop for the night - Daly Waters. Truly a strange place and one that is hard to describe or convey for those who are yet to make the journey. You drive ten hours through dusty arid landscapes, and slowly watch the flora grow taller the further north you reach, from desert grasses to tiny scrubs and eventually frangipani trees. Daly Waters is a midway point between the red desert centre of Australia (Alice Springs) and that top northern coast of Darwin. It’s basically a tiny pitstop existing for the sole purpose of hosting weary travellers like us for the night. You arrive in the dark after driving for what feels like an eternity, and follow the signs which lead you off the main highway, towards some distant lights, and suddenly find yourself in this bustling little street full of people and nightlife, all centering around the Daly Waters Pub, a huge tavern full of outback pub nostalgia steeped in old school racism and sexism, signs warning of the ‘chinese flu’ and one that says “we don't serve women - bring your own”, unfortunate relics displaying the worst parts of white outback australian culture. There seems to be a tradition or custom of women hanging their underwear on the walls? Most of it looks ancient. Some old codger was playing guitar and singing Australiana bush songs and the sign advertising him unashamedly referred to him as “the heart and soul of the bush” which seemed a bit bloody disrespectful considering we were on the traditional lands of the Jingili people, the original custodians of the land before white men built their pub and World War 11 air base there.
Darwin, Northern Territory
After resting our heads and exploring the oddities of Daly Waters, we continued our trajectory North, with only a day's drive left to reach our final destination of Darwin.
The trees are not the only thing getting taller the further north you drive - termite mounds litter the landscape, starting out about a foot high when leaving Alice Springs in Central Australia, and up to four metres high by the time you reach the north coast of Darwin!
Things begin to look lusher, with wild pandanus popping up as you reach closer towards the tropical climate of the North.
We stopped off at Mataranka, a short detour from the highway, to have a splash in the tropical hot springs. Clear green water flows between palm trees, and signs inform you that crocodiles are regularly removed from the area by ranges to ensure its safety for those swimming.
Another few hours drive until we reached our final stop of Darwin where we were able to spend a good few days relaxing in the dry season sunshine - a much anticipated escape for those of us from the cold dreary winter of the South! Darwin is a city unlike any other in Australia - a melting pot of cultures with the Australiana of the outback mashing together with Southeast Asian influences. Markets are a highlight in Darwin, full of fresh exotic tropical fruits and street foods. A short drive outside of Darwin city centre is a whole wealth of incredible national parks, and we made the most of our little tour bus to take a trip to Berry Springs, another swimming hole made from natural springs where we spotted a Mitchell's water monitor (a large lizard) lazing in the sun. Workhorse released our album No Photographs and played at The Lucky Bat in Darwin where we drank yummy cocktails to celebrate!
And that’s only half way… we still had to drive back! This time 3000kms, four days in a row! You can hit fast forward.
