Lyndhurst Talc Alf Carvings – Oodnadatta Track

Driving north from the Flinders Ranges towards Coober Pedy on the Oodnadatta Track you’ll come across the small town of Lyndhurst at the crossroads of the Strzelecki Track and see a sign directing you to “Talc Alf” located a few kilometres out of Lyndhurst on the Innaminka Road.

Talc Alf (real name Cornelius Alferink) is an eccentric character of Dutch origin turned sculptor, artist, poet, bush philosopher and supporter of a new flag for Australia where the red, black and gold Aboriginal flag replaces the Union Jack in the top left quarter of the flag.

One of the features that makes Talc Alf an eccentric is his curious theory of the origin of the English written language alphabet through alleged links to carvings done in the distant past by our ancestors:

“Now take capital A for example. It’s pointed at the top and sticks straight up so it obviously stands for the erect male penis and “A” for Adam and Adult.

Now if you get capital B and turn it on its side it looks like a pair of breasts hanging down so where you get the words, Breasts, Bosom, Beautiful.

Now C is not quite a full circle so it’s half a circle. So you add A and B together you obviously get C and if a circle is a full person then C is a half person and that’s where you get the words Child and Children.

Now D, if you lay it on its back, is obviously the shape of a dead animal lying on its back after a week in the desert,with its bloated swollen putrescent belly sticking up, and that’s where you get the words Death, Doom and Destruction.

E has three equal strokes on it and that’s obviously where you get the words Equal and Equivalent. In the Letter F the top stroke is a bit further forward and that’s where you obviously get Fast and Faster“.
– Talc Alf talking to Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

You can view more photos that I took during my road trip travelling from Adelaide to Coober Pedy.

Tourist Information

Lyndhurst is located 606 km north of Adelaide at the crossroads of the Strzelecki and Oodnadatta Tracks. For more information contact the South Australian Visitor & Travel Centre

Most tour buses will stop at Talc Alf’s so you can admire his collection of talc carvings. The carvings are for sale seven days a week during daylight hours.