Parnka Point - The Coorong - South Australia
Parnka Point in South Australia is probably one of the most remotest dx sites that I have ever listened from. It was discovered by Craig (Bundy) Edwards in the late 90's. The Coorong is a unique location because it is a lagoon. It stretches for hundreds of km yet in places its only a km or so wide. The other side of the lagoon are sand dunes and then the Southern Ocean. Nothing but water all the way to the antarctic.
It is a very hot and arid location. Temperatures soar into the 40's and 50's here. Strangely enough we did more summertime dxing at the Coorong than in the winter. Dx wise we had some very nice results from here. Asians and in particular Indonesians and Philippines were special. On our little Ewe antenna we even managed to hear Tanzania on 1214 khz. It was again all 12 volt dxing and zero noise levels by the water. Craig Edwards and I visited this location only a few times as we had been using Long Point (Strathalbyn Fishing Hut) for many years. But once this became unavailable to us we had to find an alternative. And to be honest even though we had to dx from large tents, it was quite an adventure and the dx was probably a bit better. At the huts although we had more shelter we did have more noise. So Parnka Point was probably a great location and somewhere I would have like to have tried earlier on. The drive over from Melbourne was about 9 hours but it was always worth it. If the dx was not good at the Coorong Craig always had an abundance of icy cold beer to sooth our dxing souls. |