Innamincka, South Australia

Last updated

Innamincka
South Australia
Innamincka aerial.jpg
Innamincka township from the north-east;
Cooper Creek is in the foreground and left distance
Australia South Australia location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Innamincka
Coordinates 27°44′48″S140°44′17″E / 27.746651°S 140.738019°E / -27.746651; 140.738019 Coordinates: 27°44′48″S140°44′17″E / 27.746651°S 140.738019°E / -27.746651; 140.738019 [1]
Population44 (2016 census)
Established17 April 1890 (town)
23 October 2003 (locality) [2] [3]
Postcode(s) 5731
Elevation57 m (187 ft)
Time zone ACST (UTC+9:30)
 • Summer (DST) ACDT (UTC+10:30)
Location821 km (510 mi) NE of Adelaide
LGA(s) Pastoral Unincorporated Area [1]
Region Far North [1]
State electorate(s) Stuart [4]
Federal division(s) Grey [5]
Mean max temp [6] Mean min temp [6] Annual rainfall [6]
29.6 °C
85 °F
15.6 °C
60 °F
170.1 mm
6.7 in
Localities around Innamincka:
Pandie Pandie Pandie Pandie
Cordillo Downs
Queensland
Clifton Hill Station Innamincka Queensland
Clifton Hill Station Gidgealpa
Merty Merty
Bollards Lagoon
Queensland
FootnotesAdjoining localities [1]
Pub, petrol station and general store at Innamincka township in 2007 Pub, petrol station and general store at Innamincka township in 2007.jpg
Pub, petrol station and general store at Innamincka township in 2007
Cooper Creek crossing at Innamincka XingCooperCreek.jpg
Cooper Creek crossing at Innamincka

Innamincka, formerly Hopetoun, is a township and locality in north-east South Australia with a population of 44 people as of the 2016 census. [7] By air it is 820 kilometres (510 miles) north-east of the state capital, Adelaide, and 365 kilometres (227 miles) north-east of the closest town, Lyndhurst. [1] It is 66 kilometres (41 miles) north-east of the Moomba Gas Refinery. The town lies within the Innamincka Regional Reserve and is surrounded by the Strzelecki Desert to the south and the Sturt Stony Desert to the north. It is linked by road to Lyndhurst via the Strzelecki Track, to the Birdsville Developmental Road via Cordillo Downs Road and Arrabury Road (via Haddon Corner), and the Walkers Crossing Track to the Birdsville Track. The Walkers Crossing Track is closed in summer and only traversable in dry weather. [8] [9] The township is situated along the Cooper Creek, a part of the Lake Eyre basin.

Contents

History

Aboriginal Australians have lived in the lands around Innamincka for millennia, in what they call Wangkangurru country, the traditional home of the Yawarrawarrka and Yandruwandha people.[ citation needed ]The Yawarrawarrka language (also known as Yawarawarka, Yawarawarga, Yawarawarka, Jauraworka and Jawarawarka) is also spoken in the region. The traditional language region includes the local government area of the Shire of Diamantina in Far Western Queensland, extending into the Outback Communities Authority of South Australia towards Innamincka. [10] The Wangkangurru (also known as Arabana/Wangkangurru, Wangganguru, Wanggangurru and Wongkangurru) language – closely related to the Arabana language of South Australia – is also spoken on Wangkangurru country. It has been traditionally spoken in the South Australian-Queensland border region taking in Birdsville and extending south towards Innamincka and Lake Eyre, including the local government areas of the Shire of Diamantina and the Outback Communities Authority of South Australia. [11]

The first European to visit the area was Charles Sturt in 1845. [12] He was followed by A C Gregory in 1858 and then Burke and Wills. A monument to Sturt and Burke and Wills was erected in Innamincka in 1944.

In 1882 a police camp was set up, paving the way for a small settlement. [12] In 1889, a Royal Mail coach ran fortnightly from Farina, operated by merchants Davey and Pilkington. [13] Originally named Hopetoun, Innamincka was proclaimed as a town on 17 April 1890. [2] Hopetoun was named after the Governor of Victoria, the Earl of Hopetoun. However, it was never popular with local people [12] and was re-proclaimed as the Town of Innamincka on 28 January 1892. [14]

The town was never very large, but had a hotel, a store and a police station which, until Federation in 1901, acted as the customs post for collecting inter-colonial duties [15] on cattle brought overland from Queensland into South Australia. In 1928 the Australian Inland Mission (a part of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia) built a hospital, the Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home. Severe drought and poor access to the settlement then resulted in the closure of the hotel and the hospital. In 1951 the police post closed and the town was abandoned.

Increased tourism and the discovery of gas and oil reserves in the late 1960s led to a company opening a hotel, a store and accommodation in the abandoned town.[ citation needed ] In 1994, the Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home was restored by entrepreneur Dick Smith and the Australian Geographic magazine to be used as an interpretive centre for the National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia. The nursing home had been listed on the South Australian Heritage Register in 1985. [16]

In 2003, boundaries were created for the locality of Innamincka, including the government town. [3] In 2013, the locality's boundaries were altered to include all of the Innamincka Regional Reserve and the Coongie Lakes National Park. [1]

Santos drill rig near Innamincka in the Cooper Basin in 1959 Santosinnamincka.jpg
Santos drill rig near Innamincka in the Cooper Basin in 1959

The town common, on the banks of the Cooper, is popular with campers, as is the town's public coin-in-slot toilet and shower facility.

Gray's Tree, believed to be the burial place of a member of the Burke and Wills expedition, is listed on the South Australian Heritage Register and located in the north-western rural area of the Innamincka locality. [17] [18] [19]

Burke and Wills

The Burke and Wills expedition passed through this area on their journey across Australia from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. They established a Depot Camp on Cooper Creek at Camp LXV, their sixty-fifth camp since leaving Melbourne, at a place now called The Dig Tree. There was a depot at the Dig Tree from 6 December 1860 to 21 April 1861.

The Victorian Contingent Party under Alfred Howitt was sent by the Victorian government to establish the fate of the expedition. Howitt found the remains of both leaders, Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, and buried them close to where the town is located today. He also found the sole survivor, John King living amongst, and cared for by, the Yawarrawarrka/Yandruwandha people, and returned him to Melbourne.

Howitt returned to the area in 1862 as leader of the Victorian Exploring Party. He established a depot camp at Cullyamurra Waterhole before exhuming the bodies of Burke and Wills and transporting them to Melbourne for a state funeral.

Today it is possible to visit the locations of Wills's grave and King's site on Cooper Creek downstream of Innamincka, and Burke's grave, Howitt's camp and the Dig Tree on Cooper Creek upstream of Innamincka.

Related Research Articles

Lake Eyre Endorheic lake in South Australia

Lake Eyre, officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some 700 km (435 mi) north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the lowest natural point in Australia at approximately 15 m (49 ft) below sea level (AHD), and on the rare occasions that it fills completely, is the largest lake in Australia covering an area up to 9,500 km2 (3,668 sq mi). When the lake is full, it has the same salinity level as seawater, but becomes hypersaline as the lake dries up and the water evaporates.

Birdsville Track

The Birdsville Track is a notable outback road in Australia. The 517-kilometre (321 mi) track runs between Birdsville in south-western Queensland and Marree, a small town in the north-eastern part of South Australia. It traverses three deserts along the route, the Strzelecki Desert, Sturt Stony Desert and Tirari Desert.

Burke and Wills expedition Australian exploration expedition (1860–61)

The Burke and Wills expedition was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria in Australia in 1860–61. It consisted of 19 men led by Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, with the objective of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south, to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres. At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-Indigenous people and was largely unknown to the European settlers.

Birdsville Town in Queensland, Australia

Birdsville is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census the locality of Birdsville had a population of 140 people. It is a popular tourist destination with many people using it as a starting point across the Simpson Desert.

Lake Eyre basin Place in *Queensland *South Australia *Northern Territory *New South Wales, Australia

The Lake Eyre basin is a drainage basin that covers just under one-sixth of all Australia. It is the largest endorheic basin in Australia and amongst the largest in the world, covering about 1,200,000 square kilometres (463,323 sq mi), including much of inland Queensland, large portions of South Australia and the Northern Territory, and a part of western New South Wales. The basin is also one of the largest, least-developed arid zone basins with a high degree of variability anywhere. It supports only about 60,000 people and has no major irrigation, diversions or flood-plain developments. Low density grazing that sustains a large amount of wildlife is the major land use, occupying 82% of the total land within the basin. The Lake Eyre basin of precipitation to a great extent geographically overlaps the Great Artesian Basin underneath.

Cooper Creek River in Queensland, South Australia

The Cooper Creek is one of the most famous rivers in Australia because it was the site of the death of the explorers Burke and Wills in 1861. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its tributaries and is one of three major Queensland river systems that flow into the Lake Eyre basin. The flow of the creek depends on monsoonal rains falling months earlier and many hundreds of kilometres away in eastern Queensland. It is 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) in length.

Channel Country Bioegion in Australia

The Channel Country is a region of outback Australia mostly in the state of Queensland but also in parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales. The name comes from the numerous intertwined rivulets that cross the region, which cover 150,000 km². The Channel Country is over the Cooper and Eromanga geological basins and the Lake Eyre Basin drainage basin. Further to the east is the less arid Maranoa district.

William John Wills British explorer (1834–c. 1861)

William John Wills was a British surveyor who also trained as a surgeon. Wills achieved fame as the second-in-command of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first expedition to cross Australia from south to north, finding a route across the continent from the settled areas of Victoria to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Strzelecki Desert Desert in central Australia

The Strzelecki Desert is located in the Far North Region of South Australia, South West Queensland and western New South Wales. It is positioned in the northeast of the Lake Eyre Basin, and north of the Flinders Ranges. Two other deserts occupy the Lake Eyre Basin—the Tirari Desert and the Simpson Desert.

Shire of Diamantina Local government area in Queensland, Australia

The Shire of Diamantina is a local government area in Central West Queensland, bordering South Australia and the Northern Territory. Its administrative centre is in the town of Bedourie.

Outback Communities Authority Local government area in South Australia

The Outback Communities Authority (OCA) is a statutory authority in South Australia (SA) created under the Outback Communities Act 2009. It has been established to "manage the provision of public services and facilities to outback communities" which are widely dispersed across the Pastoral Unincorporated Area which covers almost 60% of South Australia's land area. The authority has its seat at both Port Augusta which is located outside the unincorporated area and at Andamooka. The authority serves an area of 624,339 square kilometres, slightly smaller than France. The area has a population of 3,750, of whom 639 are Indigenous Australians, and includes several large pastoral leases and mining operations.

Tirari Desert Desert in South Australia

The Tirari Desert is a 15,250 square kilometres (5,888 sq mi) desert in the eastern part of the Far North region of South Australia. It stretches 212 km from north to south and 153 km from east to west.

Cordillo Downs

Cordillo Downs or Cordillo Downs Station is both a pastoral lease currently operating as a cattle station and a formal bounded locality in South Australia. It is located about 116 kilometres (72 mi) north of Innamincka and 155 kilometres (96 mi) south east of Birdsville. The name and boundaries of the locality were created on 26 April 2013 for the long established local name.

Macumba River River in South Australia

Macumba River, once known as Treuer River, is an ephemeral freshwater stream in the far north of South Australia, that is part of the Lake Eyre Basin.

Burke and Wills Plant Camp is a heritage-listed campsite near Betoota within the locality of Birdsville, Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as Return Camp 46 and Burke and Wills Camp R46. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 11 December 2008.

Merty Merty is both a pastoral lease that once operated as a cattle station in north east South Australia. In April 2013, the land occupying the appropriate extent of the pastoral lease was gazetted by the Government of South Australia as a locality under the name Merty Merty.

Burke and Wills Dig Tree Historic site in Queensland, Australia

Burke and Wills Dig Tree is a heritage-listed, blazed, eucalyptus tree at Nappa Merrie Station, Durham, Shire of Bulloo, Queensland, Australia. It was blazed on 21 April 1861. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 February 2003.

The Yandruwandha, alternatively known as Jandruwanta, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the Lakes area of South Australia, south of Cooper Creek and west of the Wangkumara people.

Birdsville Developmental Road Road in Australia

The Birdsville Developmental Road is a mostly unsealed road in south-west Queensland that branches off the Diamantina Developmental Road at a point 103 kilometres (64 mi) west of Windorah and runs to Birdsville. Its length is 273 kilometres (170 mi). The road crosses a major channel of the Diamantina River just before reaching Birdsville. It links with Cordillo Downs road and Arrabury Road, both of which lead to the South Australian town of Innamincka.

Burke, Wills, King and Yandruwandha National Heritage Place Historic site in Innamincka, South Australia

The Burke, Wills, King and Yandruwandha National Heritage Place is a heritage-listed historic precinct on the Birdsville Track, Innamincka, South Australia, Australia. It was added to the Australian National Heritage List on 22 January 2016.

References

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