The Big Dice
South Australia is home to the Big Dice, one of the little known Big Things of Australia. Along the Barrier Highway, between Yunta and Mannahill, you will find a pile of six dice made of a concrete stack to form a small pyramid. Despite being less popular across the nation, the spot is a great photo stop for travellers using the Barrier Highway.
Yunta is a small town along the highway that serves as a service centre for the local area and travellers who stop by for fuel, sightseeing and refreshments. The town also has two roadhouses, a hotel and an internet hub at The Rural Transaction Centre.
The town also has an old railway station that was constructed in 1886. Back then, Mannahill was a gold mining town that also served as a water supply point during the Peterborough-Cockburn railway construction.
In 1886, efforts to develop the Mannahill village were fruitless following the publication of an article in the Melbourne Argus describing the area as a dreary place. A month earlier, a team of delegates consisting of William Denning Glyde, William Copley, William Henry Beaglehole, David Bews, among others, had presented a 600 pounds funding proposal to the Commissioner of Crown Lands to develop the Mannahill Goldfields.
But the article claimed that the village had a scarcity of food and water and that the trains in operation had to cover long miles through the uninteresting countryside before reaching the closest towns.
The town may not offer much, but a few kilometres away, you will discover Broken Hill, another small inland mining city and the home of the Big Ant.
