Differences Between Tanunda and Alice Springs

We left Alice Springs because it is isolated and so expensive to get to the East, South or West Coasts where our denser populations live in leafy suburbs. Airfares are expensive and driving requires two or three days and a tanker full of diesel.

Recently, we drove from Tanunda to Alice Springs with an overnight stay at Coober Pedy and return and it cost us about $700. Flying would have been $700 each.

At Tanunda, we can drive to Adelaide and access many other places without having to do a two-day drive to get there. However, we've noticed some differences between life in the Barossa Valley and Alice Springs that we probably didn't expect.

Alice Springs is better catered for with shops and facilities than the Barossa Valley. None of the three towns that comprise Barossa Valley, Tanunda, Nuriootpa and Angaston has a cinema. Government services for such things as Centrelink, motor vehicle registration etc are at Gawler or Elizabeth.

Bunnings, my favourite hardware shop is at Gawler. Mitre 10 at Nuriootpa is six kilometres away and tends to be more expensive than Bunnings and not as well stocked.

Neither Woolworths nor Coles is available locally. We have several Foodland stores and Aldi, the latter of which is excellent.

However, Gawler is only about 27 kilometres away down an excellent road and the A20 Highway.

It's not too much of a drama to go there once a week and it's a pleasant drive through vineyards and lovely green fields.

There are very few indigenous Australians in the Barossa although Tanunda has an Aboriginal artifacts shop in the main street. The constant barrage of advertisements and politics related to Aboriginal affairs doesn't exist in the Barossa, which is a pleasant change after decades living in the Territory.

Religion maintains a strong hold on the local population, most of whom come from German or Scottish ancestry and many of whom have lived here for generations. Names of people and streets etc are largely Germanic and only a few of us have names that aren't Germanic.

People are friendly and seem content. As would be expected, wine production is high and consumption pretty high too. Of a weekend, the population explodes with tourists travelling from one wine tasting to another.

While the Barossa (along with the other four South Australian wine regions) contributes greatly to the Gross Domestic Product and other economic aggregates, I expect it also has a considerable impact on the livers of many inhabitants.

We loved life at Alice Springs and we believe we'll also love our lives here as our last destination after many moves during our married life together.

Robin