Innamincka, South Australia
Encyclopedia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. It is 1065 km northeast of Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
and 459 km from Lyndhurst
Lyndhurst, South Australia
Lyndhurst, sometimes misspelt Lyndthurst, is a town in north-east South Australia which is at the crossroads of the Strzelecki Track and the Oodnadatta Track. It began as a railway siding in 1878.-History:...
up the Strzelecki Track
Strzelecki Track
The Strzelecki Track is an outback track in South Australia, mostly unsealed but with a few short sealed sections to facilitate overtaking, linking Innamincka to Lyndhurst...
. It is situated on the banks of Cooper Creek
Cooper Creek
Cooper Creek is one of the most famous and yet least visited rivers in Australia. 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...
in the state's Channel Country
Channel Country
The Channel Country is region of outback Australia located mostly in the state of Queensland but also in portions 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...
, and surrounded by the Strzelecki
Strzelecki Desert
The Strzelecki Desert is located in the Far North Region of South Australia, southwest 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...
, Tirari
Tirari Desert
The Tirari Desert is a desert in the eastern part of the Far North region of South Australia.-Location and description:The Tirari Desert features salt lakes and large north-south running sand dunes....
and Sturt Stony Deserts. It is situated within Innamincka Regional Reserve
Innamincka Regional Reserve
Innamincka Regional Reserve is located in South Australia.The 1.3 million hectares reserve was created in 1988, in particular to protect its important wetlands.It was in this area that the Burke and Wills expedition started and finished....
. At the 2006 census
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...
, Innamincka had a population of 131.
History
The area was the traditional home of the Yandruwandha, DieriDieri
The Dieri is an Indigenous Australian group and language from the South Australian desert—specifically Cooper and Leigh Creek, Lake Howitt, and Lake Hope, Lake Gregory and Clayton River and low country north of Mount Freeling.-Alternate names:DiariDiyeri...
and Yarrawarrka Aborigines. The first European to visit the area was Charles Sturt
Charles Sturt
Captain Charles Napier Sturt was an English explorer of Australia, and part of the European Exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from both Sydney and later from Adelaide. His expeditions traced several of the westward-flowing rivers,...
in 1845. He was followed by A C Gregory
Augustus Gregory
Sir Augustus Charles Gregory KCMG. was an English-born Australian explorer. Between 1846 and 1858 he undertook four major expeditions.-Early years:...
in 1858 and then Burke and Wills
Burke and Wills expedition
In 1860–61, Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres...
. A monument to Sturt and Burke and Wills was erected in Innamincka in 1944.
In 1882 a police camp was setup that allowed a small settlement to develop. Commencing 7 April 1889, a Royal Mail coach ran fortnightly from Farina, operated by merchants Davey and Pilkington. Originally called Hopetoun, Innamincka was proclaimed a township in 1890. Hopetoun was named after the Governor of Victoria, the Earl of Hopetoun but it was never popular with locals. 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 duties on cattle brought overland from Queensland into South Australia. In 1928 the Australian Inland Mission
Australian Inland Mission
The Australian Presbyterian Mission was founded by the Presbyterian Church of Australia to reach those "beyond the farthest fence" with God's Word. It is better known as the Australian Inland Mission . Rev...
(a part of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia
Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia
The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia is an emergency and primary health care service for those living in rural, remote and regional areas of Australia...
) built a hospital here, the Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home. Severe drought and poor access to the settlement resulted in the closure of the hotel and the hospital. In 1951 the police post closed and the town was abandoned.
Increased tourism and discovery of gas and oil reserves in the late 1960s led to the formation of Cooper Creek Hotel Motel Pty Ltd, who opened a hotel, a store and accommodation in the abandoned town. In 1994 the Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home was restored by Dick Smith
Dick Smith (entrepreneur)
Dick Smith, AO is an Australian entrepreneur, businessman, aviator, and political activist. He is the founder of Dick Smith Electronics, Dick Smith Foods and Australian Geographic, and was selected as the 1986 Australian of the Year.-Electronics:In 1968, Dick Smith founded electronics retailer...
and Australian Geographic
Australian Geographic
The Australian Geographic is a quarterly geographical magazine-style journal created by Dick Smith in 1985. It focuses mainly on stories about Australia, or about Australian people in other countries...
and used as an interpretive centre for South Australian Parks and Wildlife.
Today the town has a population of about 15. 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.
Burke and Wills
The Burke and Wills expedition passed through this area on their journey across AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
from Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
to the Gulf of Carpentaria
Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...
. 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
Alfred William Howitt
Alfred William Howitt was an Australian anthropologist and naturalist.-Background:Howitt was born in Nottingham, England, the son of authors William Howitt and Mary Botham. He came to the Victorian gold fields in 1852 with his father and brother to visit his uncle, Godfrey Howitt...
was sent by the Victorian government
Parliament of Victoria
The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria. It follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system and consists of The Queen, represented by the Governor of Victoria; the Legislative Council ; and the Legislative Assembly...
to establish the fate of the expedition. Howitt found the remains of both leaders, Robert O'Hara Burke
Robert O'Hara Burke
Robert O'Hara Burke was an Irish soldier and police officer, who achieved fame as an Australian explorer. He was the leader 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...
and William John Wills
William John Wills
William John Wills was an English surveyor who also trained for a while as a surgeon. He 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...
and buried them close to where the town is located today. He also found the sole survivor, John King
John King (explorer)
John King was an Irish soldier who achieved fame as an Australian explorer. He was the sole survivor of the four men from the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition who reached the Gulf of Carpentaria...
, and returned him to Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
.
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
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
for a State Funeral.
Today it is possible to visit the locations of Wills' 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.
External links
- Outback NSW
- Burke & Wills Web A comprehensive website containing many of the historical documents relating to the Burke & Wills Expedition.
- The Burke & Wills Historical Society The Burke & Wills Historical Society.
- The Diary of William John Wills The diary written by Wills while at the Cooper from 23 April to 28 June 1861.
- William John Wills' journal Images from the National Library of Australia's digital manuscript collection.
- Aerial Video of Innamincka
- Australia's coal question