Uluru's doppelganger steps into spotlight
It's often mistaken for Uluru, and now tourists will for the first time be able to get up just as close to central Australia's largest red herring, Mt Conner.
The flat-topped mesa shoots up 300m in the Northern Territory desert, about 100km away from Uluru at the edge of the 400,000 hectare Curtin Springs cattle station.
The Severin family, who have owned the station since 1956, this weekend have launched two new tourism experiences at their property, which is already a drawcard for tourists who stop in to meet their roving resident emus Mongrel and Love Heart, see the parrots lining the aviary, and giggle at the blokes and sheilas toilet block mural.
One and two-day private guided walks will be on offer along the ancient salt lake system at the property, as well as access for the first time around the base of Uluru's doppelganger Mt Conner.
Walkers will learn about the station's cattle operation as they stroll along the 15km and 30km easy walking tracks.
On a one-hour paper-making class or at a two-day workshop, visitors will learn how to harvest, pulp and press paper made from local grasses such as spinifex, oat grass, woollybutt, kangaroo and kerosene grass, adding sand, clay and flowers to change the paper's colour and texture.
The paper is made in the station's old abattoir, and almost everything in the building has been recycled or re-purposed from somewhere else on the station: bakers' bread trays store paper moulds, an old bathtub forms the vat, and the 15 tonne press is made from old car and truck parts.
"Instead of turning grass into beef, we're turning grass into paper!" said station owner Peter Severin.
"That's change, and it's wonderful to see."
Official tours for Curtin Springs walks and paper are expected to begin operation mid-October.
For more information visit www.curtinsprings.com.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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