Glen Helen Resort

Upon leaving Ormiston Gorge, we are in pursuit of a sausage roll and chips, and I suggest that we drive to Glen Helen, just 10km down the road, but a long way from anything except magnificent gorges and waterholes (Alice is the closest town at 130km away). As we turn off the main highway, we are greeted by a very tall and flat wall of red rock, sporting many small ghost gums, with a white washed building in front of it – the Glen Helen Resort.




We order a serve of chips, not realising it’s only 10.30 in the morning, and the girl at the bar calls across the room where the chef is standing at the reception area. “No problems,” he grins, but warns us it’ll take a while so we should step outside and enjoy the sun.

We sit on a park bench at the rear of the building, with the perfect view of this grand gorge and its small permanent river. Flocks of crested pigeons keep us company and entertain us with their muffled calls of “woop woop”.

The girl at the bar had mentioned off-handedly that they were a bit short staffed and this got us to thinking as we munched away on the BEST chips ever, looking out on the BEST view..... “I wonder....” After eating, we wandered over to the numerous bird aviaries and watched some very healthy parrots, budgies and finches. A man in khakis and an old hat stopped to chat, and explained that he had found the budgies in the wild, without tail or wing feathers, and was able to bring them to the aviary to recover and become pets. Jase asked him how long he’d been working at Glen Helen and he replied, “I’ve owned it for almost five years.”

Cutting a dull story short, by the end of the day, Jase had secured casual employment, to commence the day after tomorrow! They were indeed short staffed, with some key employees leaving in the short term, and the owners themselves (Colin and Shelagh) taking 3 weeks off to travel to Canada.

Glen Helen Resort offers patrons a camping ground, a homestead containing the bar, kiosk and restaurant, a hotel, and a petrol pump, and is every bit as rustic and charming as you could hope. The only power is a diesel generator which hums 24 hours per day, and there is no reception to accommodate mobile phones, TV or radio. Recently they installed an internet receiver, so for a price, you can access the net if you have your own laptop. At night, mice scamper across the campground and even in the homestead itself, and before first-light, dingoes howl down at the water’s edge, the sound rebounding off the red cliffs.

It’s been about 10 days now, and Jase has become a prized employee, cheerfully taking on any task that is requested of him. He will wash dishes, mop floors, tend bar, attend reception, show guests to their accommodation, pump petrol, prepare food, recommend wines to patrons, wait on tables.... I think he has found his calling! Patrons call him by name, remark on his side burns, and become his friends. He smiles and is cheerful to everybody. When he is not working and not in uniform, holiday makers still stop to say hello to him and invariably ask what time he commences work.


Welcome to the Glen Helen family. Colin and Shelagh have left for Canada, leaving their son Dean and assistant manager Ashleigh in charge. Colin is every bit like our dear departed step dad Barry, in mannerisms, beliefs, and his love of nature and chatting with people. Once he prefaced a story with “Now the point of this story will be Dean becoming a mechanic. You have to remember that, so if I get a bit off track, you can remind me where I was going.” (in fact, we did indeed have to steer the conversation back in line after he told us a story about something quite unrelated – his response was “I thought so. I thought ‘that was a nice story’ but couldn’t remember if that is all I was going to talk about!”) Shelagh, Colins’ wife, is hard working and rarely sits in one place for more than a minute as she has her eye on many areas of the business simultaneously. Dean’s real love is rally car racing, and he talks of his pet, his Subaru, often. Ashleigh, the assistant manager, also plays guitar nad writes songs, and has a loud clear voice that can knock your socks off; but you wouldn’t know it to look at her, as she needs to be very comfortable before picking up a guitar. Tom has just arrived from England – and is a bit overwhelmed by the number of tasks and learning how to speak Australian. Chef Michael keeps us in good health by cooking delicious meals for both patrons and staff; it's sooo nice to have meals cooked for us each day, and very much appreciated (his cauliflour soup is to die for; I justr wish he would give up his secret recipe!). Slim Pickens is our resident musician who plays and sings his favourite blues/roots tunes each evening – he is extremely popular and engages his audience well. Ryan is the resident helicopter pilot – he takes tourists up and around the West Macdonnell Ranges for joy rides, and if you look up, you often see tourists seemingly hanging right out off the chopper taking photos.

In all, there are about 14 or 15 staff who work here, some for weeks (like Jase), some for years (like Ashleigh). It’s a very isolated community – the Resort is the only building in town, and the closest town (and supermarket, chemist, doctor, policeman etc) is at Alice 130km away. A trip to town will cost you about 30 litres of fuel, or $60; so you tend not to go. The Resort’s managers head into town several times per week though, and generally offer a ride or offer to pick up some necessary item on behalf of the staff.

So all in all, we are a close bunch, eating together, working together, and of course, drinking together! Jase is the perfect bartender and I have spotted patrons shaking his hand at the conclusion of an evening, presumably thanking him for his attentive service. Last night I sat outside with the smokers, and listened to them talk about Jase.... “Jase has a job here as long as he wants it” “I don’t know how we’ll survive once Jase leaves” “That Jase really knows his way round a kitchen” “Jase is so good – he’ll do anything you ask; in fact, he’d pick up dog shit with his bare hands if I asked him!” and so on...

So 2 weeks working here has turned into 3 weeks and may yet turn into 4 weeks. It’s such a beautiful place, I am in no rush to leave. It’s only the calendar reminding us that we want to be back in Melbourne before the 3rd of December that will send us away!