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Innamincka/Cooper Creek State Heritage Area

Location

The Innamincka/Cooper Creek State Heritage Area, in South Australia's Outback, is a region of both natural and historical significance. It is located on Kidman's Innamincka Pastoral Lease, and within the Innamincka Regional Reserve.

The area is more than 800 kilometres northeast of Adelaide, along the Strzelecki Track. It incorporates a section of the Cooper Creek as well as the original Innamincka township site.

The extent of the designated State Heritage Area is described as 'an area two kilometres width, centred on the main channel of the Cooper Creek, from the Queensland border to 140º 30' E longitude'. In other words, it is approximately a 40-kilometre stretch of the Cooper Creek, one kilometre each side of the centre line of the watercourse, from the Queensland border to the site of Wills Tree (approximately 14 kilometres west of the current Innamincka township).

View Public Notice (100Kb PDF).

Significance

The significance of the Innamincka/Cooper Creek State Heritage Area, declared on 16 May 1985, relates directly to the creek's role as a major watercourse and a reliable source of water in an arid region. It is primarily an area of great natural beauty, and is historically associated with the Burke and Wills expedition of 1860-63.

Cullyamurra Waterhole, Cooper Creek

The Cooper Channel is an important natural feature of the State's arid north east. It is a stunning landscape, and a permanent source of water in this harsh, remote environment. The section of the Cooper Creek within the State Heritage Area contains an extensive system of waterholes, many of which retain water and provide a haven for wildlife, even in times of extreme drought. The result is a freshwater wetland that is rare in Australia.

The area's historical significance is directly linked to the Cooper's provision of reliable fresh water. The numerous Aboriginal heritage sites are evidence that indigenous people lived on the waterway's abundant plant and animal life for thousands of years. Colonial explorers, and later drovers and pastoralists, followed the watercourse or established settlements beside it.

Most notable in the area's history is its associations with the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition of 1860-61. A number of the principal incidents of that story occurred within the designated State Heritage Area, although in some cases their precise location is open to debate.

The area has also been associated with many other facets of the State's history since colonial settlement. Names such as Charles Sturt, Sidney Kidman, Cordillo Downs, the Australian Inland Mission and the Reverend John Flynn are intrinsically woven into the stories of Innamincka and the Cooper Creek.

History

The Innamincka and Cooper Creek area has a rich history.

Its significance for Aboriginal people spans thousands of years as a trade route and a source of abundant food and fresh water. The area's Aboriginal history also includes significant contacts with explorers, pastoralists and settlers. Many sources believe that the name 'Innamincka' comes from two Aboriginal words meaning ' your shelter' or 'your home'.

Burke's Grave Site

European contact with the region came first with the explorers and later with the establishment of the pastoral industry, transport routes and service centres. Cooper Creek was named by Captain Charles Sturt on 13 October 1845, when he crossed the watercourse at a point approximately 24 kilometres west of the current Innamincka township. The water was very low at the time, hence his use of the term 'creek' rather than 'river' to describe what often becomes a deep torrent of water. Charles Cooper, after whom the waterway was named, was a South Australian judge - later Chief Justice Sir Charles Cooper. On the same expedition, Sturt also named the Strzelecki Desert after the eccentric Polish explorer, Paul Edmund de Strzelecki, who was the first European to climb and name Mount Kosciusko.

The area is well known for its associations with explorers Burke and Wills. It was in this region of the Cooper Creek that the bodies of the missing explorers were discovered, after their ill-fated south to north crossing of the continent in 1860-61. Despite being lavishly equipped, the Burke and Wills expedition foundered through bad luck and rash leadership. The expedition leaders, Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, both died beside the Cooper Creek. Eighteen year old John King was the sole survivor of the party that had reached the Gulf of Carpentaria. He was supported by local Aboriginal people, who provided food and shelter. King was eventually discovered by the search party led by Alfred Howitt, who also found and buried the bodies of Burke and Wills.

The first settlers in the area were customs officers who, before Federation in 1901, collected taxes from the drovers crossing the Queensland border to travel down the Strzelecki Creek. The drovers naturally developed a thirst for something stronger than water while their stock was counted, and in 1871 a hotel was opened beside the Cooper.

Mounted Police, Innamincka 1890
Photo B 48237: State Library of SA

Gradually the country was settled. In 1874 William Campbell formed the Innamincka Station, of 3 540 square kilometres. This property included the chain of permanent waterholes where the bodies of Burke and Wills had been found.

In 1879 coaches started a fortnightly mail run from Beltana to Innamincka Station. Transport and communication to the area greatly improved during the 1880s when Afghan cameleers took over the mail run, and government wells were sunk along the Strzelecki Track.

The original inn became the nucleus of a small settlement that soon included a 'lean-to' police house, storehouse, cellar and meathouse, a blacksmith and a cemetery. The droving of stock, and the passage of camel trains carrying wool bales or supplies between the northern stations and southern railheads, led to a steady stream of customers at both the hotel and police station during the 1880s. A permanent police station, costing £1,500 and delayed by drought, was washed away by floods in 1885, before it was completed.

A succession of droughts put impossible pressures on the sparse vegetation, and pioneers moved off their selections as conditions worsened. In 1904 Sidney Kidman had the vision to buy out the pastoral stations in the channel country, uniting them into one large holding. The original Innamincka homestead was washed away by floods in 1908, and a new building of timber and galvanised iron was constructed the following year, on the present homestead site. (Following rebuilding in 1942, and again in 1963, nothing now remains of the earlier buildings.) Initially both sheep and cattle were run on properties in the region, but the recurring droughts accounted for severe flock losses, and eventually sheep production was discontinued.

Bottle heap outside the Innamincka Hotel 1920
Photo B 61956: State Library of SA

A description of life at Innamincka during the 1920s includes a reference to one of the town's well-known attractions of the time - a massive bottle dump. This heap, outside the Innamincka Hotel, grew to be 200 metres long and two metres high (the width is uncertain).

"Being the only town between Farina and Windorah, a distance of approximately 500 miles, it became a centre for outlying station hands to hold race meetings. One of the results [for the town] was the doubtful honour of being possessors of the largest known bottle heap - it certainly was monstrous."

EH McFarlane, Land of Contrasts - recollections, undated

Restored AIM Building, Innamincka

In 1929 Reverend John Flynn's Australian Inland Mission opened the Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home (250Kb PDF) to provide medical and social services to the isolated population. This made Innamincka an important centre in the region, until shifting sand during a 1930s drought closed the Strzelecki Track, and an alternate route was developed from Birdsville to the Marree rail link (the Birdsville Track). A pedal radio, installed at the nursing home in the early 1930s, lessened Innamincka's isolation and provided its first instant link with the outside world. During its 22-year existence the Nursing Home became the venue for meetings, dances, a local library, a post office, church services and Sunday School. It closed in 1951, following the success of the new Flying Doctor Service. Shortly afterwards the police station, hotel and store also closed, and the town's demise was complete.

The Innamincka township was deserted until 1971, when a store and hotel were erected near the ruins of the nursing home. These modern businesses have expanded and continue to be the dominant features in the town, together with the restored A.I.M. building (1994), which is now the headquarters and interpretive centre of the area's National Parks Office. A number of additional dwellings have since been constructed in the new township. The area is now visited by an increasing number of tourists, who are attracted by the remote landscape, its Aboriginal associations and the historical links to Burke and Wills.

The Innamincka/Cooper Creek State Heritage Area has a distinctive natural character exemplified by its isolated, tranquil waterway. It is within the Innamincka Regional Reserve, administered by the Department for Environment and Heritage. The area is rich in Aboriginal associations and heritage places, and contains numerous sites of European historical significance. The State Heritage Area is on the Innamincka Pastoral Lease, and its boundaries include the site of the original Innamincka Station homestead complex, as well as the remains of early cattle yards.

Natural Features

Aerial view of Cooper Creek

The Innamincka region is renowned for its diversity of arid and wetland habitats, plant communities and wildlife. Especially important is the Cooper Creek, which is part of the Cooper Channel system, draining a total area of 296 000 square kilometres in Australia's inland. Conservationists consider this system to be of world environmental significance.

The State Heritage Area boundaries encompass the significant section of the Cooper Creek that retains permanent water even during severe drought. In this area the Cooper is effectively a series of waterholes, linked by the main channel. The Cullyamurra Waterhole, which has a maximum depth of 27 metres at the feed end, is one of the most magnificent waterholes in Central Australia. It has formed during great floods, when the Cooper is restricted by the Innamincka Choke, a very narrow passage at its eastern end. Other well-known waterholes within the precinct include Minkie and Policeman's Waterholes.

Policeman's Waterhole, Cooper Creek

This wetland sustains a diversity of fauna, including many species of mammals, fish, reptiles and frogs. The most obvious animals though are the birds, many of which are waterbirds. In addition to the resident species and the nomadic breeders, this region is an important migratory stopover for large numbers of waders and shorebirds.

The dominant vegetation in the area is Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and Coolibah (Eucalyptus microtheca). Many plant species are now locally extinct, and a number of habitats are under threat from rabbits, cattle and park visitors.

The State Heritage Area falls within the Innamincka Regional Reserve, which was established in 1988 to assure the integrity of the wetlands. This 14 000 square kilometre reserve was the first of its type in Australia, facilitating both commercial use and (managed) recreational use of the area.

Aboriginal Heritage Sites

For thousands of years the Cooper Creek was a major Aboriginal trade route and a source of abundant food and fresh water. Many sites and artefacts have been located along the waterholes, and on the floodplain and gibber plateau. These include engravings, quarries, middens and tool-making scatter, and are evidence of the long association of Aboriginal people with this region. Within the State Heritage Area, for example, rock engravings at the eastern end of the Cullyamurra Waterhole are thought to be 4 000 years old.

Monuments and Markers

Within the Innamincka/Cooper Creek State Heritage Area boundaries are a number of historical markers relating to the renowned Burke and Wills expedition, and to the deaths of its two leaders in June 1861.

King's Site

A memorial cairn, 20 kilometres west of the present town, indicates the approximate area in which William Wills' body was found and buried by the rescue party in September 1861. The same party found Robert O'Hara Burke's body under a Coolibah on the banks of the Cooper, further east. A memorial plaque and a fenced area, eight kilometres east of the town, indicate the site of his original grave. Both bodies were exhumed in January 1863 and taken to Melbourne for burial. [view a transcript of Wills' journal 23 April to 26 June 1861]

John King, who survived the ordeal, was cared for by local Aboriginal people. Approximately eight kilometres west of the town, in what is thought to be the area where he was found, is a stone cairn and a tree stump, emblazoned with the word 'KING'.

The site of Howitt's depot, on the eastern bank of Cullyamurra Waterhole, has also been marked with a cairn. This was erected at what is thought to be the site of the rescue party's campsite, based on information from Howitt's journal.

Built Heritage

The current Innamincka Station homestead is located within the boundaries of the State Heritage Area, as is the site of the original buildings. The earlier homestead was washed away by floods in 1908, and nothing now remains of these structures. Remains of stock yards beside the Cullyamurra Waterhole are the only physical evidence of early pastoral settlement in the area.

Innamincka's cemetery and the ruins of the pre-1950s hotel and police station buildings are within the State Heritage Area, near Cooper Creek Crossing, and are tangible reminders of the region's early history.

The present township of Innamincka is located on the edge of the State Heritage Area precinct. The most dominant structure in the town is the former Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home. This Australian Inland Mission building (250Kb PDF) is a State Heritage Place entered in the South Australian Heritage Register, and is a significant feature of South Australia's cultural heritage. The nursing home, which had fallen into ruin following its closure in 1951, was restored in 1994 and is now the park headquarters of the Innamincka Regional Reserve, and an interpretive centre for the town.


Ruins of AIM Building prior to restoration		AIM Building, 2004

The booklet Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home: Innamincka (1.6Mb PDF), produced by the Department for Environment and Natural Resources (later Department for Environment and Heritage) in the mid-1990s, reproduces the interpretive text panels on display in the restored AIM Building. It contains detailed information about the area's natural and cultural history and offers anecdotal stories of life in this remote region.

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