Road trip – 605 km – Snowtown
I had a good sleep in a big, comfortable bed. Around 06:30, I woke up. It was time for a shower, then for some breakfast. There was not much to pack today, just our suitcases and a little other stuff. It would be a 600 km day trip to Snowtown. Andrew called them last night for a reservation. Snowtown is not far from Burra, where we spent the first night in a caravan and camping place. We had a second coffee prepared in our mugs, and so we started. Not much would happen today. I got a bit tired of driving, knowing we would reach Clayton Bay tomorrow, on Sunday. It’s the third day of driving between 500 and 600 km.
We stopped in Wudina, just looking around. There was a Studio run by an elderly lady. She seems to be very creative, painting and making necklaces and bracelets. Her shop was full of many other things. We had a chat with her for a while.
Just a few kilometers before Snowton, there was a pink lake.
Australia’s pink lakes are colored by a combination of high salinity and salt-loving microorganisms, specifically the algae Dunaliella salina and Halobacteria. These organisms produce red and orange carotenoid pigments as a survival response, which gives the water its vibrant pink hue. The intensity of the color can vary depending on the time of day, season, and water temperature.
At 16:30, we reached the pub in Snowtown.
Snowtown has a dark history, a story that everybody in Australia has heard about.
The town of Snowtown, South Australia, is unfortunately known worldwide for the horrific “Snowtown murders” or “bodies in barrels murders,” which were uncovered in May 1999.
- The Discovery: The case came to light when police discovered the remains of eight bodies stuffed into barrels containing acid, which were hidden in the vault of a disused bank building in Snowtown, a town approximately 140 km north of Adelaide.
- Victims: The police investigation eventually linked the perpetrators to a total of twelve fatalities.
- The Perpetrators: The crimes were led by John Justin Bunting, along with accomplices Robert Joe Wagner, James Spyridon Vlassakis, and Mark Ray Haydon (who helped cover up the crimes).
- The Location Misnomer: Despite the name, only one of the victims was actually killed in Snowtown, and none of the victims or the murderers were local residents of the town. The bodies were moved to Snowtown for storage in the bank vault shortly before their discovery.
- Motives: The ringleader, Bunting, targeted people he disliked, including those he suspected of being pedophiles, homosexuals, or drug users. The murders were often preceded by torture, and the killers engaged in social security fraud by continuing to claim the welfare benefits of their victims after they had been killed.
The crimes shocked Australia due to their brutality, duration, and the location of the discovery, forever associating the otherwise quiet, small town with one of the country’s worst serial killing cases.
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