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Innamincka Regional Reserve
Overview
With dramatic links to some of Australia's most famous explorers, diverse wildlife and extensive wetlands, Innamincka Regional Reserve Park offers visitors a unique and compelling experience of the Australian Outback. Surrounded by vast expanses of sandy desert and arid plains, it is an oasis of striking contrast where you can boat along a gum-shaded creek, explore historic sites or fish and swim in one of the area's many waterholes suitable for these activities.
Within its 13,800 square kilometres the reserve includes Innamincka township, once a vital trading post for pastoral properties in the region, and now mainly serving the tourist trade. Among the must-see sites are the original graves of ill-fated explorers, Burke and Wills, Coongie Lakes, Cullyamurra waterhole, King's site and the Dig Tree historic site.
To camp in the Park you must be in possession of a current Desert Parks Pass or an Innamincka Regional Reserve camping permit.
History
Innamincka was geographically destined to play a major role in the early explorations of Australia's unknown interior to its north and west. Its central location and reliable water supply made it an ideal base camp or resting place for expeditions and cattle drives from the east and south. River beds, with their canopies of shade, offered mid-summer relief for travellers and stock alike, and there were plentiful supplies of fish and game most of the year.
Captain Charles Sturt became the first European to set eyes on the Innamincka wetlands in 1844-45. Only 15 years later Burke and Wills died here, tragically close to help. Their companion John King's life was saved by local Aborigines who discovered him in desperate plight and sustained him with their own survival skills.
Between 1870 and 1890 the north-east of South Australia saw the arrival of sheep and cattle, leading to the establishment of the pastoral industry at the turn of the century. Sidney Kidman (later Sir Sidney Kidman) bought Coongie Station in 1902 and Innamincka Station in 1908. The 2 properties were merged in 1930 under a pastoral lease which is still held by the Kidman Pastoral Company.
The stone-walled Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home, opened at Innamincka in 1928, was part of a network of outback hospitals providing medical services for people living in isolated areas. Today the restored building serves as the Innamincka Regional Reserve Park headquarters and information centre.
In 1988 Innamincka Regional Reserve made its own contribution to history when it was established to assure the integrity of the wetlands with both commercial and managed recreational use continuing side by side. It was the first reserve of its type in Australia.
Aboriginal Culture and Heritage
Cooper Creek was a major Aboriginal trade route, and the name Innamincka is believed to have derived from Aboriginal legend. Through their hunting and fishing skills, the four main groups of local Aborigines survived for thousands of years in a harsh environment where white men quickly perished. Ironically, it was the vulnerable newcomers who introduced disease, notably influenza, which decimated the native population in 1917. The last initiated elder of the area, died in 1958. Many remains of Aboriginal people may be seen in the area. Please exercise respect for them and leave them where they lie.
Throughout the reserve, particularly along the Cooper and on the shores of the lakes on the North West Branch, you may see evidence of occupation, including middens (camp sites), artifact scatters (tool-making sites), rock engravings, arrangements of stone, timber, earth and quarries.
A display giving an insight into the natural history of the area, the Aboriginal people and their culture, and European settlement is open daily at the Innamincka Regional Reserve Park headquarters.
Contacts
Information on Innamincka Regional Reserve is available from the Desert Parks Hot Line at Port Augusta (1800 816 078) and the Innamincka Regional Reserve Park headquarters (61 8) 8675 9909.
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