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Port Augusta
Port Augusta sits at the head of Spencer Gulf, a unique waterway that extends the sea up to the foot of the majestic Flinders Ranges and the Outback of South Australia. It is 'unique' because it serves to combine diverse ecological systems; mangrove, dolphins and marine birdlife together with arid lands vegetation, emus, kangaroos and that of the rugged ranges.
Port Augusta's geographical location results in it being known as both the "Gateway to the Outback" and the "Crossroads of Australia". Roads from Adelaide, the Flinders Ranges, Alice Springs, Perth, Eyre Peninsula, Whyalla and Outback all intersect at Port Augusta.
Northern Spencer Gulf 1802 - 1852
The very first Europeans to sail the waters of the northern Spencer Gulf were Matthew Flinders and his crew aboard 'HMS Investigator' who entered that section of the gulf on Monday, March 8, 1802. Flinders was under instructions to seek out any access to an inland sea which at the time was thought to exist within the Australian continent. However, they would have soon discovered the northern extent of the gulf.
European settlement began in the 1840s when pastoral leases extended from the Flinders Ranges north to Leigh Creek. In 1852-1853, wool merchant and MP Thomas Elder urged the government of the day to survey the harbour and lay out the township of the now Port Augusta.
Thomas Elder was one very prominent pastoralist who took up large leases in the Beltana area, including the stations of Lake Hope, Finniss Springs, Umberatana, Mount Lyndhurst, Manuwalkaninna and Blanchewater. With Robert Barr Smith, he owned Beltana Station which alone ran 17,705 sheep in 1862, and employed 90 shearers in 1878.
The town of Port Augusta was established in 1854 and is named after Lady Augusta Young, the wife of Sir Henry Edward Fox Young (1803 - 1870), the fifth Governor of South Australia. It was under Young that South Australia established its first formal parliament. The South Australian House of Assembly comprised 36 members each elected from a different area.
