The main street in Wilmington with Wilmington Hotel in foreground

Wilmington
Small rural township once known as Beautiful Valley
Located 292 km north of Adelaide, Wilmington has a highly original main street where there is no footpath as such but there are trees between the road and the buildings creating a kind of natural division between the road and the footpath.

The first European settlers into the region arrived in the 1850s. They were impressed with the richness of the region (it was obviously during a time of good rainfall) and the prettiness of the setting and decided to name the district Beautiful Valley.

The first sign of a township in the district occurred in 1860-61 when Robert Blinman built a inn at the foot of Horrocks Pass which he named the Roundwood Hotel. By 1864 the Cobb & Co coach through the area stopped at the hotel. A few years later the Globe Hotel was built nearby. It is now known as the Wilmington Hotel and it is still possible to see the old coaching stables at the back of the building.

The town was officially named Wilmington by Governor Musgrave in 1876. No one is quite sure where he got the name but it is assumed that it was taken from either Wilmington in Delaware or Wilmington in North Carolina, in the United States. Why he chose this name is not certain although it is known that Musgrave's wife was American. Did she come from Wilmington?

The day the town was gazetted the local people protested. They liked the name Beautiful Valley. They seem to have been overruled by one local who insisted that Beautiful Valley was the name of the local station (property) and it was never the name of the town.

Today Wilmington is a sleepy little town with a population of only a couple of hundred people. It does have an excellent little museum with what looks like a Jindivik rocket outside. For the rest: it looks like it hasn't changed since the 1950s. It is truly a town which has stood still.

Things to see:  

Wilmington Hall

Wilmington Hotel
The Globe Hotel was built around 1876. It is now known as the Wilmington Hotel and it is still possible to see the old coaching stables at the back of the building. These stables, probably built in 1880, are made of rubble stone with rendered doorways and louvred openings which include both the stable door and loft.

Police Station
Dating from 1880 and located in the Main Street this is another example of a public building constructed at a time when there was a belief that the town would become more substantial. It is now a private residence.

Alligator Gorge
The Alligator Gorge is part of Mount Remarkable National Park. It is an area of particular beauty which is noted for its outstanding displays of wildflowers in the springtime. This is well worth visiting. There are steps into the gorge with resting bays at various points. At some places the gorge is so narrow it is probably only 3 metres wide. Ferns and gum trees fight for light in this narrow and beautiful location.

Hancocks Lookout looking across at Pt Augusta

Hancock's Lookout
The 5 km drive to Hancocks Lookout off the main road is definitely worthwhile. It is a rare opportunity to stand on the top of the ranges and look across the upper end of Spencer Gulf with the power station at Port Augusta and the land on the far side of the Gulf clearly visible in the distance. It is an exceptional view and the road to the lookout passes through some truly beautiful, almost cliched, Australian countryside.

Horrocks Pass and Horrocks Cairn
On the road between Wilmington and Port Augusta, perched at the top of Horrocks Pass (Horrocks reached the pass on 10/8/1846), is a monument to John Ainsworth Horrocks (1818-1846) who was born in Penwortham Hall, Lancashire and may well be the unluckiest of all the Australian explorers. Horrocks' career as an explorer was all too short, a mere six years, before his death in a shooting accident. He arrived in Adelaide on his birthday, 22 March 1839. One of his first contacts was with the explorer Edward John Eyre and, on Eyre's advice, he established a sheep station in the Hutt Valley near the present-day town of Clare.

Through a pastoralist, he began to explore the surrounding area over the next few years and was the first man to use camels for exploration. An impressive character with a commanding manner he was nicknamed 'the King of the North'. Mount Horrocks and Horrocks Pass are named after him. In July 1846 he left on an expedition to find fresh grazing land to the north. His party included the well-known artist S. T. Gill. At Lake Gill (later renamed Lake Dutton) Horrocks was accidentally wounded whilst unpacking a loaded gun. This is always known as the case of a man being shot by his camel because the gun went off when the camel moved suddenly. He was carried back to Penwortham where he died on 23 September 1846, aged only twenty-eight.

If you pause at the cairn at the top of Horrocks Pass you will notice that this brief life has been reduced even further to: 'John Ainsworth Horrocks was a pastoralist and explorer. Accompanied by Theakston, Gill, Kilroy and Garlick traversed this pass 17th to the 19th August 1846. They found the pass on 10 August. Horrocks was accidentally wounded in September at Lake Dutton and died on 23 September at Penwortham.'

	Tourist Information
	Flinders Ranges & Outback Information Wilmington SA Telephone: 1800 633 060 Facsimile: (08) 8223 3995
	Hotels
	Wilmington Hotel Main St P.O. Box 2 Wilmington SA 5485 Telephone: (08) 8667 5154 Rating: **
	Caravan Parks
	Beautiful Valley Caravan Park Main North Rd P.O. Box 97 Wilmington SA 5485 Telephone: (08) 8667 5197 Rating: **
	Wilmington Tourist Park Lot 273 P.O. Box 7 Wilmington SA 5485 Telephone: (08) 8667 5002 Rating: **
	Restaurants
	Wilmington Bakery & Deli Main St Wilmington SA 5485 Telephone: (08) 8667 5017
	Wilmington Hotel Main St P.O. Box 2 Wilmington SA 5485 Telephone: (08) 8667 5154