The main street in Cleve

Cleve
Small wheatbelt service town on the Eyre Peninsula
The small township of Cleve is located 532 km west of Adelaide via the Princes and Eyre Highways, 226 km southwest of Port Augusta and 143 km north of Port Lincoln. It is a small service centre town located in a sheep and wheat growing area.

This is an area which, prior to clearance by Europeans, was characterised by dense mallee scrub which comprised white mallee, red mallee, narrow-leaved red mallee and broombush. Euros and Western grey kangaroos were commonplace and the rainfall in the area rarely exceeded 400 mm per annum. It was dry land which, if carefully used, could produce good reliable crops of wheat and was ideal sheep country. As late as the 1850s the only Europeans who had any knowledge of the area were a small number of drovers and explorers who had overlanded sheep from Port Lincoln to Port Augusta.

The first settlers, Dr James McKechnie and his two brothers Donald and Peter, moved into the area in April 1853.

Little is known of the three bachelor McKechnie brothers who leased 43 sq miles of land near the current site of Cleve from 1853 until 1870 when, after the death of his two brothers, Peter returned to his native Scotland. The property was known as Wangaraleedine Station. It is said that the property was named after a local Aboriginal expression meaning 'place of the west wind'.

In 1873 the property was sold to George Melrose who, in his first year of operation, shore 30 000 sheep. The wool was shipped out from the nearby port at Arno Bay .

It is a comment on the harshness of the environment and the loneliness of the Eyre Peninsula at the time that the first European woman in the Cleve area was the wife of David McKenzie who arrived in the area in late 1862.

In 1878, in response to a need to establish a service centre for the surrounding sheep and wheat farms, William Clindening surveyed a site for the town creating a classic grid pattern in which Main Street, First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Streets were surrounded in a neat rectangle by North, South, East and West Terraces. The central grid was surrounded by park lands, a showground, golf course, an oval and a school reserve. In this it imitates the basic design of Adelaide. It is hard to imagine a more precise and simple grid pattern. On the 6 March 1879 the town was officially gazetted.

Cleve was named after Cleve House, the country seat of the Snow family who were cousins of Governor Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois. Jervois was Governor of South Australia from 1877-83.

There was some copper mining in the area in the early days but nothing of great significance. Poonana Creek, which is just a few kilometres to the east of Cleve, was where the copper was mined.

Today Cleve is a quiet little community with an attractive main street.

Things to see:  

The Old Council Chambers, the National Trust Museum, in Third Street

Cleve's Mural and Museum
Cleve's attractions for the visitor include an interesting mural depicting the early history of the area which is on the wall of the shop at the corner of Main Street and Fourth Street, a small National Trust Museum located in the old Council Chambers in Third Street, a number of scenic drives around the area which afford excellent views across the wheatfields to the shores of Spencer Gulf.

	Hotels
	Cleve Hotel/Motel Fourth St Cleve SA 5640 Telephone: (08) 8628 2011 Rating: **
	Caravan Parks
	Cleve Roadhouse& Caravan Park Cowell Rd Cleve SA 5640 Telephone: (08) 8628 2019
	Restaurants
	Cleve Hotel/Motel Fourth St Cleve SA 5640 Telephone: (08) 8628 2011
	Cleve Roadhouse Restaurant Cowell Rd Cleve SA 5640 Telephone: (08) 8628 2019