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Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located approximately 280 km as the crow flies from the State's capital city of Adelaide (646 km by road). In June 2019 Port Lincoln had an estimated population of 16,418,[1] having grown at an average annual rate of 0.55% year-on-year over the preceding five years. The city is reputed to have the most millionaires per capita in Australia, as well as claiming to be Australia's "Seafood Capital".
[edit] History
The Eyre Peninsula has been home to Aboriginal people for over 40 thousand years, with the Barngarla (eastern Eyre, including Port Lincoln), Nauo (south western Eyre), Wirangu (north western Eyre) and Mirning (far western Eyre) being the predominant original cultural groups present at the time of the arrival of Europeans. The original Barngarla name for Port Lincoln was Galinyala. Matthew Flinders was the first European to reach Port Lincoln under his commission by the British Admiralty to chart Australia's unexplored coastline. On 25 February 1802, Flinders sailed his exploration vessel HMS Investigator into the harbour, which he later named Port Lincoln after the city of Lincoln in his native county of Lincolnshire in England. A couple of months later on 19 April, Nicolas Baudin entered the same port and named it Port Champagny. Sealers had visited the area around 1828 and the mainly French whaling ships were fishing the local bays and island regions by the 1820s and up to the 1840s. In 1836 Governor Sir John Hindmarsh, the first Governor of South Australia, gave instructions to Colonel William Light to find a capital for the "New British Province of South Australia". With boatfuls of immigrants set to arrive and impatient settlers already camping at Holdfast Bay, Rapid Bay and Kangaroo Island, Light was under immense pressure to identify a location with a suitable harbour, sufficient agricultural land and fresh water. After assessing a number of other potential locations, Light was ordered by England to consider Port Lincoln as a possible site for the capital. While Thomas Lipson had arrived in Port Lincoln earlier and approved of its "beautiful harbour" and "fertile land", Light was unconvinced from the beginning, as he faced fierce westerly gales, ill-placed islands and rocky reefs on arrival. Light decided that it might be dangerous for merchant ships trying to enter the unfamiliar territory after a long voyage and that there was not enough of what he thought was good agricultural land, nor enough fresh water to sustain a city. Instead he selected Adelaide as the most suitable place for settlement. Port Lincoln, however, proved popular with pioneers and developers. The first settlers arrived on 19 March 1839 aboard the ships Abeona, Porter and Dorset. On 3 October 1839, Governor George Gawler proclaimed the whole area from Cape Catastrophe to the head of the Spencer Gulf as one district, which he named the District of Port Lincoln. In 1840, one year after settlement, the population of Port Lincoln was 270. There were 30 stone houses, a hotel, blacksmith's shop and a store in the Happy Valley area. Around this time, Edward John Eyre explored the peninsula that was subsequently named in his honour. In early 1842, local Aboriginal resistance to the British settlement became so successful that it prompted the near abandonment of Port Lincoln. As a result, Governor George Grey ordered a detachment of the 96th Regiment of the British Army under the command of Lieutenant Hugonin to enforce control in the area. After an initial defeat at Pillaworta, the 96th in combination with the Mounted Police and armed settlers were able to restore full British authority by the end of 1843. A section of Native Police were later deployed to the area to maintain this control. An unknown number of Aboriginal people were killed by soldiers near Pillaworta in retribution for the presumed killings of colonists. In 1849, five Aboriginal people including an infant were poisoned after being given flour mixed with arsenic by hutkeeper Patrick Dwyer near Port Lincoln. Despite being arrested with strong evidence against him, Dwyer was released from custody by Charles Driver, the Government Resident at Port Lincoln. Local government formally began on the Eyre Peninsula on 1 July 1880, with the establishment of the District Council of Lincoln. The township of Port Lincoln naturally was included in that area. On 18 August 1921, the Municipality of Port Lincoln was formally proclaimed. By 1936 the population had grown to 3200 and the town had a first-class water supply. The port had become the commercial pivot for the area, providing for its many agricultural and commercial requirements. City status was granted to Port Lincoln on 21 January 1971 and the proclamation was read at the opening of the tenth annual Tunarama Festival on the Australia Day weekend. [edit] Water supplyThe lack of a reliable surface water supply was a factor preventing Port Lincoln from being proclaimed the colony's capital city in the 1830s. Even as a small town, Port Lincoln outgrew its fresh water supplies. It is now largely dependent on water drawn from groundwater basins in the south of the peninsula. The southern and western parts of the Eyre Peninsula region also share this resource via the Tod-Ceduna pipeline. The Iron Knob to Kimba pipeline completed in 2007 provides limited transfer capacity of River Murray water into the Tod-Ceduna system. Following the development of a long term water supply plan for Eyre Peninsula, the South Australian government is progressing detailed investigation of augmentation options. These include seawater desalination. Formerly a potable water resource fed by the Tod River, the Tod Reservoir was taken offline in 2001–2002 due to concerns about rising levels of agricultural chemical contamination and salinity. [edit] Heritage listingsPort Lincoln has a number of places listed on the South Australian Heritage Register, including:
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