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| When the
rains come Sturts Desert Pea blooms in
the harsh desert around Innaminka
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Innamincka
Legendary, but tiny, outback settlement in
the middle of the desert
Located 1065 km northeast of Adelaide and 459 km
from Lyndhurst on the Strzelecki Track (a good
quality dirt road in dry weather), Innamincka is
a tiny outback settlement with literally nothing
more than a general store, a pub, some fuel
pumps, the ruins of the old Royal Flying Doctor
Base (which was closed down in 1951) and an
airstrip in the dry, flat wasteland that is the
Strzelecki Desert. To the north lies the vast
Innamincka Station which was established in
1872. Once owned by the cattle baron Sidney
Kidman, it covers 13 817 sq km while, to the
south, is Gidgealpa Station, covering 4900 sq
km.
The Innamincka area was first explored by
Europeans when Charles Sturt came through the
area in 1845. Sturt was followed by the hapless
Burke and Wills (the one survivor from the
expedition, John King, was found near the
Innamincka waterhole) who reached the area in
1861. There are a number of important Burke and
Wills sites in the area. In Innamincka there is
a monument to the two explorers, about 25 km
west of the town is Wills grave, and some 54 km
east is the famous 'Dig' tree where supplies
were left for the explorers. It was the cruelest
irony of the whole ill-fated expedition that the
camp was abandoned by William Brahe and the
support team only 7 hours before the arrival of
Burke and Wills. The local publican happily
provides detailed information on how to get to
all the Burke and Wills sites.
The town, if it could ever be called a town,
came into existence in 1882 with the
establishment of a police camp. This was enough
to start a small settlement and by 1886 there
was a general store and a hotel. The movement of
cattle and sheep along the Cooper Creek ensured
that the settlement prospered.
There is a delightful story of how, because
the customers were infrequent, the hotel could
only supply bottled beer. Kegs of beer would
have been tapped and then stood around for
weeks. The result of this bottle culture was
that by the early 1950s the town had a huge
bottle dump which was over a metre high and some
hundreds of metres wide.
In 1890 the town was gazetted as Hopetoun. It
was named after the Governor of Victoria, the
Earl of Hopetoun. The official name was so
disliked by the locals that it lasted only a
month before they insisted upon a change. The
original name of Innamincka, after which the
nearby station had been named, persisted. It is
claimed that Innamincka was a corruption of 'Yidniminckanie'
a word used by the local Aborigines to describe
a legend in which the rainbow serpent
disappeared into a nearby waterhole. There is an
alternative version which says it simply meant
'your shelter'. Take your pick.
For a short time the township thrived. Before
1901 it was an important customs depot where
state taxes were collected from drovers moving
cattle across the border from Queensland into
South Australia. Its decline was slow. The Royal
Flying Doctor Base was established in 1928 and
continued to serve the surrounding area until
1951. Modern transportation made Innamincka
largely irrelevant to the needs of the area. By
1952 the town was completely uninhabited.
The job of converting Innamincka into a ghost
town (indeed little more than a memory) was
completed by a huge flood in 1956 which washed
the remains of the hotel, the police station,
half of the Flying Doctor Base and all of the
bottles downstream.
The 1970s saw renewed interest in the ghost
town. Vast underground gas fields were
discovered in the area (gas from the area
accounts for 80 per cent of South Australia's
electricity requirements) and the arrival of the
ubiquitous 4WD and large numbers of people
wanting to explore the outback saw the
construction of a series of new buildings to
cater for people moving through the area.
Things to see:
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Cooper Discovery Cruise
Innamincka is situated on Cooper Creek, famous
for its associations with the ill-fated Burke
and Wills expedition. A local service provider
offers an informative cruise of the famous (or
is that infamous) waterway.
Callamurra Waterhole
To the northeast of the town is the oasis known
as Callamurra Waterhole, a beautiful stretch of
water which has not dried up since it was first
seen by Sturt. At the upper end of the waterhole
are some remarkable examples of the art of the
local Aborigines - abstract shapes carved into
the rocks.
Coongie Lakes
About 120 km north of the settlement are the
famous Coongie Lakes which, in spite of the
intense heat and dryness of the area, are
reputed to provide a near-continuous supply of
water. They have only dried up once since Sturt
first saw them in 1845. The lakes are brimming
with wildlife which ranges from pelicans and
ducks to bream, catfish and yellow bellies.
Lake Eyre
Beyond the Coongie Lakes lies Lake Eyre, the
final point for waters which start in far north
Queensland and move slowly down the Cooper Creek
and its anabranches.
