| Address | Talc Town Road,
Lyndhurst
South Australia, 5732, Australia |
An open-air Talc Stone Carving display of about 60 permanent works of art, depicting the thoughts of Cornelis Johan (Talc Alf) Alferink. His Nissan hut home sits on a rise of red land. A combined modern Aboriginal and Southern Cross flag has been on permanent display since 1988. A wind and bicycle powered washing machine is in a shade house and there are more talc statues than locals.
Living at Lyndhurst, a former Overland Telegraph post and Ghan train stop at the beginning of the Strzelecki Track, Talc Alf is an outback character who has become a fixture for Uluru-bound backpackers and tourists.
For 33 years he has chipped away at his beloved talc and pursued an obsession for unravelling what he declares to be the true meanings of alphabets and word origins. It is possible to quickly summarise Talc Alf's theory, which he demonstrates to visitors by taking random words and using a stick of talc to dissect them via pictograms scrawled on a makeshift blackboard within his outdoor gallery.
At the age of 16 he headed north. After a year on an outback station he then worked as a field assistant for geologists in the rugged Pilbara region of Western Australia for a period of ten years. Then he started carving talc and was first intrigued by the meaning of Aboriginal rock art he saw in the Hamersley Ranges. After this, he then spent three years searching Australia for the perfect talc deposit. This deposit was found at Mount Fitton, 130 kilometres east of Lyndhurst, where he put down roots and began to carve.
Alf’s work includes recording the modern history of this district and country, with special emphasis on a revitalised look at the stone age origins of the individual capital letters of the English alphabet, including the origin of the name Australia (ie Aust.Ra.L.is – Ost = east to the golden sun (Ra), Land, is). Some of the work is for sale to cover costs.
Accommodation may be arranged at the Lyndhurst Hotel if required.
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| Activity | Art and Craft, Lessons/Tutorials, Self-Guided. | | Entity Facility | Access With Assistance for the Disabled, Car park, Coach Parking, Parking for the Disabled, Shaded Area, Sheltered Area. | | Experience | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Cultural, Outback. |
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