Innamincka
South Australia
Innamincka township from the north-east;
Cooper Creek is in the foreground and left distance
Innamincka is located in South Australia
Innamincka
Innamincka
Coordinates27°44′48″S 140°44′17″E / 27.746651°S 140.738019°E / -27.746651; 140.738019[1]
Population21 (SAL 2021)[2]
Established17 April 1890 (town)
23 October 2003 (locality)[3][4]
Postcode(s)5731
Elevation57 m (187 ft)
Time zoneACST (UTC+9:30)
 • Summer (DST)ACDT (UTC+10:30)
Location821 km (510 mi) NE of Adelaide
LGA(s)Pastoral Unincorporated Area[1]
RegionFar North[1]
State electorate(s)Stuart[5]
Federal division(s)Grey[6]
Mean max temp[7] Mean min temp[7] Annual rainfall[7]
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
Cooper Creek crossing at Innamincka

Innamincka, formerly Hopetoun, is a township and locality in north-east South Australia. 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.

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.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.[3] 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. 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.[4] 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

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.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Search results for 'Innamincka, LOCB' with the following datasets selected – 'NPW and Conservation Properties', 'Suburbs and Localities', 'Government Towns', 'Hundreds', 'Local Government Areas', 'South Australian Government Regions' and 'Gazetteer'". Location SA Map Viewer. Government of South Australian. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  2. ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Innamincka (suburb and locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022. 
  3. 1 2 Cockburn, John A. (17 April 1890). "Proclamation re the Town of Hopetoun" (PDF). The South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South Australia. pp. 1108–1109. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  4. 1 2 Government of South Australia (23 October 2003). "Geographical Names Act 1991 Notice to Assign Names and Boundaries to Places" (PDF). The South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South AustralIA. p. 3859. Retrieved 14 April 2019. Assign the names Yunta, Blinman, Bookabie, Glendambo, Yalata, Kingoonya, Olary, Innamincka, and Manna Hill to those areas Out of Councils and shown numbered 1 to 9 on Rack Plan 857 (Sheet 3)
  5. ↑ "Electoral district profiles – Stuart". Electoral Commission SA. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  6. ↑ "Profile of the electoral division of Grey (SA)". Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 "Monthly climate statistics: Summary statistics Moomba Airport (nearest weather station)". Commonwealth of Australia , Bureau of Meteorology. Archived from the original on 15 January 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  8. ↑ "Getting to Innamincka by road". Innamincka Hotel. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  9. ↑ "The Outback Loop map" (PDF). Government of South Australia. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  10. ↑ This Wikipedia article incorporates CC-BY-4.0 licensed text from: "Yawarrawarrka". Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages map. State Library of Queensland. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  11. ↑ This Wikipedia article incorporates CC-BY-4.0 licensed text from: "Wangkangurru". Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages map. State Library of Queensland. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  12. 1 2 3 "Innamincka – South Australia – Australia – Travel". The Age. 8 February 2004. Archived from the original on 31 December 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2009.
  13. ↑ Advertiser, 3 April 1889, p 7.
  14. ↑ Kingston, C.C. (28 January 1892). "Untitled proclamation re renaming of the Town of Hopetoun to the Town of Innaminck" (PDF). The South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South Australia. pp. 191–192. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  15. ↑ Reinhardt, Sam; Steel, Lee (2006). "A brief history of Australia's tax system". The Treasury, Australian Government. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  16. ↑ "Regional Reserve Headquarters (former Australian Inland Mission [AIM] Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home), Innamincka Regional Reserve". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  17. ↑ "Tree, possibly marking the burial site of Charles Gray, member of Burke & Wills' 1861 expedition', Lake Massacre, Innamincka Regional Reserve". South Australian Heritage Register. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  18. ↑ "Stuarts Creek, 5720". Location SA Map Viewer. Government of South Australia. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  19. ↑ "Innamincka, 5731". Location SA Map Viewer. Government of South Australia. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
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