A wedding in Australia’s hottest town, Oodnadatta

The country’s hottest and driest town, Oodnadatta, South Australia, might not seem like an ideal wedding destination, but for Sarah Knight, 27, and William Clarke, 30, it made sense to host their celebration there. The couple married in a beautiful setting on a nearby property, Allandale, owned by Will’s family. It was a huge effort for all involved, with the local postie delivering the flowers (with help from the IGA freight truck) and some vendors and guests driving 1000 kilometres from Adelaide after flights to Oodnadatta were cancelled. Here, Sarah sits down with Graziher to look back on their special day.

Tell us about where you live.

Will, myself and our one-year-old daughter, Nancy, live on a cattle station called Allandale. We’re 20 kilometres from Oodnadatta, 190 kilometres from Coober Pedy and over 1000 kilometres from Adelaide.

How did you meet?

I’m originally from Tamworth, in New South Wales, and I met Will at the Longyard Hotel in 2017 while he was on a bull buying trip. I didn’t think anything of it at first, but we got chatting and exchanged numbers. Will flew back to Tamworth a little while later to spend some time with me, and the rest is history.

We did long distance for about three years. Then I came up to Oodnadatta to visit Will at Allandale for what was meant to be about six weeks, but I never left.

How did the proposal happen?

We were visiting my family on their property at Moonbi. I’m very close with my family so Will thought it would be nice for them to be there. He convinced me to go with him out the back to fix a fence, then proposed to me overlooking the beautiful Moonbi Ranges.

Tell us about your wedding.

We live about 12 hours’ drive from Adelaide and decided that we didn’t really want to have to travel for our own wedding, and put in all that effort, when we could just get married at home. We had around 60 guests, mainly family, so it was really special and intimate. It was a lot of work but worth it.

There are only three regional flights each week from Adelaide to Coober Pedy. For some reason, they were all cancelled on the week of our wedding, which meant our videographer and photographer, plus a few family members, had to find rental cars at the airport and drive the 12 hours to get here. I felt so bad for them, but they all managed to make it.

The weather was perfect, beer was cold, we had a full moon and a perfect sunset to finish the day.

Your advice to other couples?

Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done!

IN DETAIL

Photographer Edwina Robertson 

Dress Adelaide Bridal Collective

Dress alterations Horrocksvale Collections

Flowers Adelaide Flower House 

Bridesmaid dresses Bec + Bridge 

Menswear Myer and Thomas Cook

Makeup Kylan Rhianna Makeup 

Celebrant Vicki Fox Celebrant 

Food T.E Catering & Events

Videographer High Up Films 

Rings G.W. Cox 

Music Gavin Chandler 

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To hear extraordinary stories about women living in rural and regional Australia, listen to our podcast Life on the Land on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.