Carpenter Rocks, South Australia

Infobox Australian Place | type = town
name = Carpenter Rocks
state = sa


caption =
lga = District Council of Grant
postcode = 5291
est =
pop = 269
pop_footnotes=
elevation=
elevation_footnotes=
maxtemp =
mintemp =
rainfall =
stategov = Mount Gambier
fedgov = Barker
dist1 = 452
dir1 = SE
location1= Adelaide
dist2 = 35
dir2 = SW
location2= Mount Gambier
dist3 = 37
dir3 = W
location3= Port Macdonnell, South Australia

Carpenter Rocks (coord|37|55|S|140|24|E|region:AU-SA_type:city) is a small coastal town located 35 km south west of Mount Gambier in the south east of South Australia. The area faces the Southern Ocean and is renowned for its rugged coastline which provides exceptional fishing and diving locations.

At the 2006 census the town and surrounding localities such as Pelican Point had a population of 269.Census 2006 AUS|id=SSC44556 |name=Pelican Point (L) (State Suburb)|accessdate=2008-03-26|quick=on] Carpenter Rocks is in the District Council of Grant Local Government area, the South Australian House of Assembly electoral district of Mount Gambier and the Australian House of Representatives Division of Barker.

Areas of Interest

The town is a gateway to the Canunda National Park and Lake Bonney S.E. Carpenter Rocks supports a significant southern rock lobster industry and Bucks Bay provides a safe haven for the many fishing boats moored there. Cape Banks lighthouse is located 4 km from the township and it is near here on August 5th 1859 the "SS Admella" was wrecked on a reef with the loss of 89 lives.

History & Settlement

The earliest people in the Carpenter Rocks area were the aboriginal communities from the Booandik tribe. They were scattered in small groups along the coast where they had access to an abundance of food and water. Due to disease and land dispossession the last full blooded Booandik died in 1904. [Bonney, Neville "Carpenter Rocks and Beyond". Millicent Press, 1987 ISBN 0731614879]

Lieutenant James Grant, when on board the HMS "Lady Nelson", was the first known British person to view land known today as south eastern South Australia. On December 3rd 1800, he sighted what at first he thought was four unconnected islands, but on a closer look realized they were two mountains and two capes. One of these he named Cape Banks, just west of todays township, after English Botanist - Joseph Banks. On April 4th 1802 the French explorer Nicholas Baudin aboard the ship "Geographe" noticed the area and made the observation: Cquote
Along the beach we could make out a continuous line of rocks which stretched a little way out to sea and over which the breakers pounded with extraordinary force. This was the cause of the incessant noise which we could hear. The name, according to Geoffrey Manning and Rodney Cockburn "Place Names of South Australia", "The Rocks", were named "Les Carpentiers" after a Dutch navigator, by Nicholas Baudin, meaning "The Carpenters", alluding to their indented and serrated nature, which reminded Baudin of a carpenters saw. [ State Library of South Australia (website) [http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/manning/search.html Place Names of South Australia] retrieved on 2008-03-28]

See also

SS Admella

External links

* [http://www.thelimestonecoast.com/site/page.cfm?u=79 Limestone Coast Tourism]
* [http://www.admella.org.au/"SS Admella" 150th Anniversary 2009]
* [http://www.dcgrant.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm District Council of Grant]

References