What Parachilna is known for
Parachilna is a country town on the arid Lake Torrens plain, known for turning camel, emu and kangaroo into a reason to drive five hours from Adelaide for dinner. In 1991 Ross and Jane Fargher bought the pub and rebuilt it around the Feral Mixed Grill. The town’s stone hotel dates to 1905.
When the railway closed
The northern Flinders Ranges is Adnyamathanha country. Parachilna was surveyed in 1863 beside a government well and worked the road to the Blinman copper mines. When the Great Northern Railway came in 1881, the town moved ten kilometres west to the arid Lake Torrens plain, and the stone hotel went up in 1905.
The narrow gauge closed in stages, Hawker to Copley in October 1956 and Copley to Marree in March 1958, and when the Ghan shifted to the Tarcoola route in October 1980 the passenger trade went with it. The pastoral leases kept working, but by 1991 the pub held little a traveler would drive out for.
A plain idea
In 1991 Ross Fargher, a fourth generation Flinders Ranges pastoralist, and his wife Jane bought the pub and rebuilt it around a plain idea: serve what the country actually carries. Roo fillet, camel sausage, emu rissole and goat chop became the Feral Mixed Grill, feral and native meat plated like fine dining.
What the plate earns
The pub became the reason for the drive, five hours up from Adelaide, with Blinman’s pub and store 25 km east. The Farghers’ Nilpena station became Nilpena Ediacara National Park, 60,617 hectares that Parks SA calls the most comprehensive record of Ediacara fossils in the world, about 550 million years old.
Why it worked
Parachilna committed to the one thing the outback apologized for. The town already had its reasons to exist, a government well, a road through the gorge and pastoral country around, and in 1991 the Farghers added one more.
They took the meat most kitchens kept off the plate, feral camel and goat alongside native kangaroo and emu, and made it the draw. They did not compete on comfort. They competed on a plate only that country could supply, and the longer the drive, the more the dinner meant.
Questions people ask about Parachilna
Why is Parachilna, South Australia famous?
Parachilna is known for the Feral Mixed Grill, roo fillet, camel sausage, emu rissole and goat chop plated like fine dining at its pub. Ross and Jane Fargher bought the pub in 1991, and people now drive five hours from Adelaide for dinner.
What is the Feral Mixed Grill at the Parachilna pub?
Roo fillet, camel sausage, emu rissole and goat chop became the Feral Mixed Grill at the Parachilna pub, feral and native meat plated like fine dining. It was built around a plain idea: serve what the country actually carries.
How far is Parachilna from Adelaide?
Parachilna is a five hour drive from Adelaide, up on the arid Lake Torrens plain, with Blinman's pub and store 25 km east. The long drive is part of the appeal: the longer the drive, the more the dinner meant.
What became of the Fargher family's Nilpena station?
The Farghers, who bought the Parachilna pub in 1991, saw their Nilpena station become Nilpena Ediacara National Park, 60,617 hectares that Parks SA calls the most comprehensive record of Ediacara fossils in the world, about 550 million years old.