Cape Town Lens: Yorke Peninsula. Marion Bay. A young emu chick on the highway.

A Cape Town Sandy Bay tagged image from photographer – denisbin as published on Flickr.

Yorke Peninsula. Marion Bay. A young emu chick on the highway.

Image by denisbin

Marion Bay and Inneston.
This small fishing and holiday town appears to have been named after the wreck of the steamer Marion. The steamer left Port Adelaide for Wallaroo on the 10th July 1862 but was ship wrecked near Cape Spencer on the 12th July. On that day the Captain of the Lubra, another steamer, saw smoke coming from a nearby bay. The life boats from the Marion had rescued the 50 passengers and crew and got them off the wreck to the bottom of the cliffs and then to a nearby sandy bay. Then they were transported to the Lubra. Shortly afterwards the Marion passengers boarded the steamer Lubra the stranded Marion broke up and disappeared on the rocks. The passengers were than taken back to Port Adelaide by the Lubra. But another boat was ship wrecked here also called the Marion in 1851 so it might have been named after that wreck. The Hundred of Warrenben was declared in 1877 and some farmers and settlers moved to the region. Some years later in the early 1880s William Innes discovered a form of limestone inland from the coast and several short term mining companies emerged to mine the gypsum. This limestone was treated to produce gypsum an essential ingredient of plaster which was used by the building industry and it was used as a fertiliser for agriculture. In 1889 a syndicate established the Australian Gypsum and Whiting Company and built their own small jetty at Marion Bay. In the early years the gypsum as transported in small boats to waiting ketches in the bay. The gypsum was transported on light rail tracks to the coast from Lake Marion. The mining company was taken over by A Hassell in 1898. The wooden railway tracks were eventually replaced with steel ones and steam engines used for transporting the gypsum from Lake Marion and later from Lake Inneston with a connecting railway from Marion Bay to Stenhouse Bay. In 1930 the port facilities were moved from Marion Bay to Stenhouse Bay and the town of Stenhouse Bay was established soon after. The Marion Bay School operated from 1919 to 1938. When closed it was moved in 1938 to Stenhouse Bay. Stenhouse Bay School opened in 1938. There it served as the Stenhouse Bay hall and school until its closure in 1974. Next to it was a weatherboard teacher’s residence which still stands. The only public buildings in Marion Bay in recent decades has been the general store and the hotel.

Just south of Marion Bay the Innes National Park was created in 1972 after the gypsum mining and production at Inneston ceased. It is now known as the Innes Dhilba Guuranda National Park. It contains the ghost town of Inneston, Lake Inneston, Lake Marion etc and spectacular coastline. A modern lighthouse at Cape Spencer (1970) replaced the lighthouse on Althorpe Island and another lighthouse is located at West Cape (1980). Beyond West Cape is Pondalowie Bay with its South, Middle and North islands. Althorpe Island was named by Captain Matthew Flinders in 1802. An inter colonial meeting of the colonies in 1873 agreed upon a number of necessary lighthouses to try and ensure safety of major shipping routes including Investigator Strait between Kangaroo Island and Yorke Peninsula. Construction of Althorpe lighthouse and three light keeper’s cottages began in 1877 and the light became operational in 1879. Despite the lighthouse beaming across the Strait a six ship wrecks occurred around the island. The last was in 1982 and the best known was the sinking of the Pareora in 1919 with the loss of eleven lives. The lighthouse was automated in 1991 and the three light keeper’s cottages closed after 112 years of service. The Commonwealth returned the island to the SA government in 1996.