Innamincka, South Australia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Innamincka South Australia
Innamincka township from the north-east; Cooper Creek is in the foreground and left distance
Innamincka Location in South Australia
Population	44 (2016 census)
Established	17 April 1890 (town) 23 October 2003 (locality)
Postcode(s)	5731
Elevation	57 m (187 ft)
Time zone	ACST (UTC+9:30)
• Summer (DST)	ACDT (UTC+10:30)
Location	821 km (510 mi) NE of Adelaide
LGA(s)	Pastoral Unincorporated Area
Region	Far North
State electorate(s)	Stuart
Federal Division(s)	Grey
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall 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
Footnotes	Adjoining localities

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 with a population of 44 people as of the 2016 census. 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. 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. The township is situated along the Cooper Creek, a part of the Lake Eyre basin.

History

The area was the traditional home of the Yandruwandha, Indigenous Australians. The first European to visit the area was Charles Sturt in 1845. 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 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 (a part of the Royal Flying Doctor Service 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 and Australian Geographic and used as an interpretive centre for South Australian Parks and Wildlife. The nursing home had already been listed on the South Australian Heritage Register on 25 July 1985.

Santos drill rig near Innamincka in cooper basin 1959

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.

Gray's Tree, the supposed 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.

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 Yandruwandha aboriginals, 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' 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.