OUTBACK STATIONS
Home on the range
There is nothing else like the sunrises and sunsets, which constantly change the colours of the hills and ranges from red to pink
Story: Nigel Austin
Photos: Leon Mead
Lizzie
Bagge could have lived anywhere in the world but when she met and married
Dean Rasheed, Arkaba Station in the heart of the Flinders Ranges became home.
Her new life on one of Australia's most beautiful properties was vastly different
to her upbringing in a mansion on park-like grounds in Norfolk, England.
Prince Charles had been a childhood friend, while her family traced its history to the Doomsday Book and 1086.
Lizzie Arrived in Australia in 1976 with her parents Sir John and Lady Bagge to visit her brother James Bagge who had moved to Adelaide as aide-de-camp to the Governor of South Australia, Sir Mark Oliphant. When her parents returned to England, Lizzie stayed on and worked as a secretary for Sir Mark and later for other SA Governors.
When she moved to Arkaba, the contrast between England and the outback sheep station 400 km north of Adelaide couldn't have been greater.
The
view from Arkaba takes in the magnificent Elder Range rising starkly against
the blue sky. Its highest point Mount Aleck is 1128 metres high, only marginally
shorter than nearby St Mary's, the highest peak in the Flinders.
Elder Range runs along the western side of Arkaba and the southern cliffs of Wilpena Pound form its northern boundary.
The station was a favourite of the late Sir Hans Heysen, who loved
to paint the stately red gums and left a caravan parked at the woolshed. 
Full story Issue 7, October-November 1999
