By our reckoning, the naming of "Murphy's Haystacks" would have been made somewhere between 1902 and 1914. At that time the mail run contractors were the Mudges. We can only assume that Charlie Mudge, the driver of the mail wagon in the original story was one of these "Mudges".

The first mail to the area was infrequent, even though a post office was listed in 1863 at Streaky Bay. The first official mail runs were done by packhorse from Port Lincoln, probably once or twice a month, unfortunately no records exist on the contractors and history books vary considerably with dates and names. As there were no roads in the area many tracks were made and followed, these generally weaved along the coast and were very rough.

From where Port Kenny now stands, the road traveled west to the head of Venus Bay, continuing west along the coast in front of what is now Drinan Vale. From there it turned inland passing south of Tyringa through to Kalka Station, it then went north on the west side of what is now Calca cemetery, continuing straight across the lakes to Pantoulbie Station, then on to Streaky Bay.

Early contractors to use this route were J.L. Fry [1864], J.A.Freeman [1873] and possibly Montgomeries [1880s]. With the development of the Calca township when the first post office opened around 1889, previously mail was delivered at Kalka Station bypassing the coast section. This route was used until early 1890s by the mail, although it was used by local people and fishermen traveling to Baird Bay for many years.

With the road shifting, traveling directly from Port Kenny to Streaky Bay [along what is now the Flinders Highway], the mail coach was then met at Benbarber. Farm records show that in 1902 Litchfields were still running the mail contract with horse-drawn coaches. Horses were kept at the Murphy’s Property near Benbarber corner, where they were changed over usually every twenty-five miles for fresh ones.1

The mail coach used by the Mudge brothers had no springs, the body being suspended by leather straps called "thorobraces " from the upward-curving arms of the undercarriage. The vehicle, drawn by five light horses - two polers and and three leaders - was capable of travelling up to twenty miles per hour over sandy scrub tracks.

The Mudges took over the contract after the Litchfields and in 1914 first used a Ford car and lorry, thus ending the horse coach. 2

1 Source : "History of Calca" - 1991 [pg:150]
2 Source : "The Streaky Bay" - 1988 [pg: 81]

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