When the rains come Sturts Desert Pea blooms in the harsh desert around Innaminka

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:  

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.