Here’s one tough tree.

The Calitirs Pine is pretty common around the Flinders Ranges.

It is sometimes confused with the Cypress “pine’ but is no relation.

Used extensively in days gone by for housing, mining and for fence posts, the Calitris is termite resistant – a big advantage in these parts.

It is said the Calitris pine is one of the few plant species to survive the transition over millions of years from rain forest area to what is now semi-arid country.

That makes them pretty hardy trees as can be seen here on the rocky slopes of the Warraweena Conservation Park, east of Beltana in the northern Flinders Ranges.

Stoney Steiner and his lovely wife Gina run the Warraweena Conservation Park tucked away in the mountains of the northern Flinders Ranges near Beltana.

Rocky heights like this are plentiful for the energetic visitor with perhaps a glimpse of the elusive yellow-footed rock wallaby to be found there.

An approaching storm adds a little drama and the possibility of a soaking.

Income from visitors to Warraweena keep the conservation project going.

A full moon rising behind the ruins of the Sliding Rock mine on the Warraweena Conservation Park, northern Flinders Ranges.

The night before a full moon, as in this case means the moon has risen at about that same time the sun is setting so there is still plenty of available light.

It can pay to know where the moon is going to rise and have a composition worked out beforehand which was not the case here……just a fortunate opportunity.

f22 @ 1/10th sec, ISO 1600. Canon 5D Mk II with a 28-300mm lens

The hills and mountains of Warraweena Conservation Park, northern Flinders Ranges.

Unfortunately in the blogger system, this image has lost a lot of the original colours .

The golden glow from the early morning sunrise has been washed out.

My apologies.

Sliding Rock, Warraweena Sanctuary, northern Flinders Ranges

Sometimes the best views come from the most inaccessible places. The Warraweena Conservation Park in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges has such scenes but not all as hard as this to reach.

Shooting landscapes in summer has its rewards and the photography rule of shooting in the early morning or late afternoon isn’t always true.

This photograph was taken at about 4pm daylight saving time with the temperature around 40C.

Dawn finds the Warrioota Creek (which starts in the mountains on Warraweena in the northern Flinders) flowing after 10 or so millimetres of overnight rain.

The Warioota runs through some very beautiful country on Warraweena then Beltana Station and into Lake Torrens.

An unusual rock formation together with a spectacular Flinders Ranges sunset combine to provide an almost spiritual experience.

Yet equally it could have been Terrible Hollow, the bolt hole of Captain Starlight of ‘Robbery Under Arms’ fame. There have been two movies made about Captain Starlight. The second, starring Sam Neill was shot in the Flinders Ranges not far from here.

Then too, the real Captain Starlight, Harry Redford passed by not far from here on his epic cattle rustling journey from the Channel Country in Queensland back in 1870.

It’s certainly hard enough to find. It originally took me five hours and I had some directions on how to get there.

This is all natural light working in a wonderful way. The second photo was taken about half an hour earlier. Without this shot it would be a bit hard to understand how all the rocks glowed in what appears to be a cave.

The formation is two parts of a mountain on the Warraweena Conservation Park that have parted. Rainwater over thousands of years has leeched a hole in the separated section.

Instead of desperate bushrangers, the endangered yellow-footed Rock Wallaby lives here in peace and solitude so don’t expect to find the hole in the wall if you visit Warraweena (click here).