Currency Creek (postcode 5214) is a township and locality in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

on the western shore of Lake Alexandrina about 6 km north of Goolwa, beside a seasonal stream bearing the same name - Currency Creek - which flows into Lake Alexandrina. The locality includes the headland named Finniss Point which separates the mouths of Currency Creek and the Finniss River.

History

Parts of Lake Alexandrina near to Currency Creek were initially explored by

Charles Sturt Charles Napier Sturt (28 April 1795 – 16 June 1869) was a British officer and explorer of Australia, and part of the European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from Sydney and la ...

in an open boat in 1830 but he did not sight the creek. In December 1837, while exploring the Lake and Murray Mouth looking for other outlets to the sea, a party led by

Thomas Bewes Strangways Thomas Bewes Strangways (23 July 1809 – 23 February 1859), generally called "Bewes Strangways" and "T. Bewes Strangways", was an explorer, early settler and Colonial Secretary of South Australia. Strangways was the second son of late Henry Bul ...

and

Young Bingham Hutchinson Young Bingham Hutchinson (born 14 August 1806 in Richmond, Surrey, England – d. 3 August 1870 at Hindmarsh valley, South Australia) was a Royal Navy officer, early explorer and settler of South Australia. Hutchinson joined the Royal Navy and s ...

discovered the waterway while using a whaleboat borrowed from the Encounter Bay fishery. The whaleboat, which in September 1837 had been sold off the schooner '' Currency Lass'' at Adelaide, bore the same name as its mother ship, and they named the creek in honour of this boat. They reported on the good grassland in the area and its potential for agriculture. The township was surveyed in the Currency Creek Special Survey of 1840 but it never really thrived due to the nearness of Goolwa. During the later 1800s the district supported many market gardens along the fertile river flats. The Currency Creek Cemetery contains many historic gravestones. It is notably large compared to the township for the reason that it has serviced the entire district for well over a century. Boundaries for the locality were created on 31 August 2000 for the "long established name" and include the Government Town of Currency Creek

Wine industry

Currency Creek lends its name to a wine region that stretches from

Port Elliot Port Elliot is a town in South Australia toward the eastern end of the south coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula. It is situated on the sheltered Horseshoe Bay, a small bay off the much larger Encounter Bay. Pullen Island lies outside the mouth of t ...

in the west, to Lake Alexandrina to the east, and includes

Hindmarsh Island Hindmarsh Island (Ngarrindjeri: Kumerangk) is an inland river island located in the lower Murray River near the town of Goolwa, South Australia, Goolwa, South Australia. The island is a tourist destination, which has increased in popularity si ...

. The main grape varieties grown are

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...

Sauvignon blanc is a green-skinned grape variety that originates from the Bordeaux region of France. The grape most likely gets its name from the French words ''sauvage'' ("wild") and ''blanc'' ("white") due to its early origins as an indigenous grape in ...

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebanon' ...

and

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...

Vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

s were first established in the area in 1969, with the region producing its first vintage in 1972.

Currency Creek Arboretum

The

Currency Creek Arboretum 270px, Eucalyptus_deanei.html"_;"title="Dean_Nicolle_and_Eucalyptus_deanei">Dean_Nicolle_and_Eucalyptus_deanei_ image:Eucalyptus-20070325-013.jpg.html" ;"title="Eucalyptus_deanei_.html" ;"title="Eucalyptus_deanei.html" ;"title="Dean Nicolle and ...

is named after the nearby geographical feature and town. It is being developed as a specialist

eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', '' Corymbia'', '' Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

(''

Angophora ''Angophora'' is a genus of nine species of trees and shrubs in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Endemic to eastern Australia, they differ from other eucalypts in having juvenile and adult leaves arranged in opposite pairs, sepals reduced to projec ...

'', ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

'' and ''

Corymbia ''Corymbia'', commonly known as bloodwoods, is a genus of about one hundred species of tree that, along with ''Eucalyptus'', '' Angophora'' and several smaller groups, are referred to as eucalypts. Until 1990, corymbias were included in the gen ...

'')

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

with its main purpose being research into Australia's most dominant natural group of plants, the eucalypts.

References

External links

Headstones of the Currency Creek cemetery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Currency Creek, South Australia Towns in South Australia

History

Wine industry

Currency Creek Arboretum

See also

References

External links