The Lefevre Peninsula is a

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

located in the Australian state of

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 ...

located about northwest of the

Adelaide city centre Adelaide city centre (Kaurna: Tarndanya) is the inner city locality of Greater Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is known by locals simply as "the City" or "Town" to distinguish it from Greater Adelaide and from the City of Ade ...

. It is a narrow

sand spit A spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift by longshore currents. The drift occurs due t ...

of about running north from its connection to the mainland. The name given to the

by the traditional owners of the area, the

Kaurna people The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kaurn ...

, was Mudlangga, meaning "nose-place" in the

Kaurna language Kaurna ( or ) is a Pama-Nyungan language historically spoken by the Kaurna peoples of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. The Kaurna peoples are made up of various tribal clan groups, each with their own ''parnkarra'' district of land and ...

Location and extent

Lefevre Peninsula, with a population of approximately 30,000 residents, is located on the east coast of

Gulf St Vincent Gulf St Vincent, sometimes referred to as St Vincent Gulf, St Vincent's Gulf or Gulf of St Vincent, is the eastern of two large inlets of water on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, the other being the larger Sp ...

about north-west of the Adelaide city centre. The peninsula is bounded to the west by Gulf St Vincent and to the north and the east by the

Port River The Port River (officially known as the Port Adelaide River) is part of a tidal estuary located north of the Adelaide city centre in the Australian state of South Australia. It has been used as a shipping channel since the beginning of European ...

. The southern boundary of the “topographical peninsula” has been determined by the

Surveyor General of South Australia The Surveyor General of South Australia (also stylised Surveyor-General) is a position originally created for the Surveyor General for the colony of South Australia. The post is held by an official responsible for government surveying Survey ...

as being Recreation Road in the suburb of

Semaphore Park Semaphore Park is a suburb in the Australian state of South Australia located in the west of Adelaide on the coastline of Gulf St Vincent. The northern end of the suburb is considered to be located within the Lefevre Peninsula. Semaphore Park o ...

as “an examination of old plans indicate that boats could have navigated the Port Adelaide River to approximately this point”.

Description

The western, Gulf St Vincent, coast of the peninsula consists of a continuous stretch of fine, white sand

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

es. The eastern side is defined and separated from the mainland by the

Barker Inlet The Barker Inlet is a tidal inlet of the Gulf St Vincent in Adelaide, South Australia, named after Captain Collet Barker who first sighted it in 1831. It contains one of the southernmost mangrove forests in the world, a dolphin sanctuary, seagra ...

and

Torrens Island Torrens Island is an island in the Australian state of South Australia located in the Adelaide metropolitan area in the Port River Estuary about northwest of the Adelaide city centre. Since European settlement of Adelaide in 1836, it has ...

lies nearby to the east. To the east of the base of the peninsula is the suburb of

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

. Much of the peninsula has been developed, with residential areas extending inland from the western beaches, and heavy industries concentrated along the Port River waterfront on its eastern shore. The peninsula has strong maritime associations due to its proximity to

, the Port River and Outer Harbor.

Collins class submarine The ''Collins''-class submarines are Australian-built Diesel-electric transmission, diesel-electric submarines operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The ''Collins'' class takes its name from Australian Vice Admiral John Augustine Collins; ...

s were built at the suburb of

Osborne Osborne may refer to: * Osborne (name) Places Australia * Osborne, South Australia (disambiguation), places associated with the suburb in the Adelaide metropolitan area * Osborne, New South Wales, a rural community in the Riverina region Can ...

Cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

production occurs on the peninsula at

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

. In 1999, the

Pelican Point Power Station The Pelican Point Power Station is located at Pelican Point, 20 km from the centre of Adelaide, South Australia on the Lefevre Peninsula. It is operated by Engie (previously known as GDF Suez Australian Energy), which owns 72 per cent of ...

was established at the northeastern tip of the peninsula adjacent to the Port River. Lefevre Peninsula also contains several sailing clubs and golf clubs and the popular Semaphore Road foreshore. The

Outer Harbor railway line The Outer Harbor railway line is a suburban branch line in Adelaide, South Australia. It runs from Adelaide station through the north western suburbs to Port Adelaide and Outer Harbor. It is 21.9 kilometres in length, and shares part of its ru ...

runs through the peninsula from Ethelton to Outer Harbor and is now solely a passenger railway. A separate

freight railway Rail freight transport is the use of rail transport, railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of Railroad car#Freight cars, freight cars (US) or goods wagon ...

enters the peninsula over the

Mary MacKillop Bridge The Mary MacKillop Bridge is a bascule bridge in Adelaide, Australia that carries the Dry Creek-Port Adelaide railway line over the Port River. In July 2005, Abigroup was awarded a contract to build a railway bridge and the adjoining Tom 'Diver' ...

and runs up the eastern side of the peninsula to the bulk grain and container berths at Pelican Point. Prior to the bridge construction in 2008, this line was serviced by the ''Birkenhead Loop'' which branched from the Outer Harbor line near

Glanville railway station Glanville railway station is located on the Outer Harbor line. Situated in the north-western Adelaide suburb of Glanville, it is 13.8 kilometres from Adelaide station. History The station opened in 1878 after the extension of the Adelaide t ...

Naming

Before the

British colonisation of South Australia British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield ...

, the Kaurna people called the peninsula ''Mudlangga'', meaning "nose-place" in the

, possibly referring to the nose of a

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

. It was given its present name by John Hindmarsh, then

Governor of South Australia The governor of South Australia is the representative in South Australia of the Monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. The governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the governor-gene ...

, on 3 June 1837 after Sir John George Shaw-Lefevre, who was one of South Australia's Colonisation Commissioners.

History

Before it was developed, much of the coastline was covered with

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

s. The land was extensively covered with bush, with such plants as wattle,

sheoak The Casuarinaceae are a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants placed in the order Fagales, consisting of four genera and 91 species of trees and shrubs native to eastern Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, Malesia, Papuasia, and the Pacific ...

and other native species. The eastern side of the peninsula formed part of the estuarine ecosystem of the Port River.

European use

European settlement commenced in the early 1840s.

Governance

The Lefevre Peninsula is located within the local government area of the

City of Port Adelaide Enfield The City of Port Adelaide Enfield, located across inner north and north-western suburbs of Adelaide, is one of the largest metropolitan councils within South Australia. It was established on 26 March 1996 by the amalgamation of the City of Por ...

, the state electoral districts of Lee and

and the federal division of Hindmarsh. The following suburbs are located on the Lefevre Peninsula:

Ethelton Ethelton is a north-western suburb of Adelaide from the CBD, on the Lefevre Peninsula, in the state of South Australia, Australia. It is a residential suburb within the local government area of City of Port Adelaide Enfield, adjacent to the s ...

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

, Glanville, Largs Bay,

Largs North Largs North is a suburb in the Australian state of South Australia located on the Lefevre Peninsula in the west of Adelaide about northwest of the Adelaide city centre. Description Largs North is bounded to the north by the suburb of Taperoo ...

, New Port, North Haven,

, Outer Harbor,

Peterhead Peterhead (; gd, Ceann Phàdraig, sco, Peterheid ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement (the city of Aberdeen itself not being a part of the district), with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census. ...

, Semaphore, the northern end of

Semaphore South Semaphore South is a beachside suburb of Adelaide, in the City of Port Adelaide Enfield. The Semaphore South Post Office opened on 3 November 1947 and closed in 1978. Politics Semaphore South is located in the state electoral district of Lee ...

and

Taperoo Taperoo is a suburb in the Australian state of South Australia located on the LeFevre Peninsula in the west of Adelaide about north-west of the Adelaide city centre. Description Taperoo is adjacent to Osborne and Largs North. It is bounded ...

References

{{Commons category, Lefevre Peninsula

External links

The Peninsula Stays
Lefevre Peninsula tourism and accommodation

yorkcivil.com.au * C Fenner and J B Cleland
''The Geography and Botany of the Adelaide Coast''
Adelaide, 1935 Spits (landform) Gulf St Vincent