__NOTOC__ Mount Schank is a locality 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 south-east of the state capital of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and south of the municipal seat of

Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital Ad ...

in the south-east of the state. Messers Arthur's sheep station at Mount Schank by George Angas

British colonisation of the area began in 1842 when brothers Edward and Fortescue Arthur (sons of Sir George Arthur) established the Mount Schank Station. The Arthur brothers were in continuous conflict with the local

Bungandidj The Bungandidj people are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Mount Gambier region in south-eastern South Australia, and also in western Victoria. Their language is the Bungandidj language. Bungandidj was historically frequently rendered a ...

people from the time of their arrival. Many of their shepherds absconded, horses were speared and hundreds of their sheep were taken. The brothers had to do much of the shepherding work themselves and often engaged in close combat with "the Blacks". On one occasion Fortescue was slightly wounded after being speared. After capturing and chaining up a Bungandidj man, Edward forced him to reveal the location of their camp. An armed group of settlers was then organised by Edward and the Aboriginal camp was raided and destroyed, with six or eight Bungandidj being killed. The Arthur brothers could not sustain the effort of keeping the

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

and with ruinous financial losses they sold out to

Robert Leake Robert Leake (1824 – 1 May 1901) was a British Liberal politician. Leake was the eldest son of Robert Leake of Manchester and Mary Lockett of Salford, Lancashire. After a private education he became head of Lockett, Leake and Company, engrave ...

of nearby Glencoe station in 1844. The Clarke family then owned Mount Schank station for around 140 years before it was bought in 2005 by former Chairman of the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

Ron Evans Ronald Barry Evans AM (7 July 1939 – 9 March 2007) was an Australian rules footballer, Chairman of the Australian Football League (AFL) from 1998 to 2007, as well as President of the Essendon Football Club from 1988 to 1992. Education E ...

. In 2017 the property was valued at around fifty million dollars. Part of Mount Schank became a private sub-division of land within the cadastral unit of the

Hundred of MacDonnell 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

. Boundaries were created on 31 October 1996 for the “long established name.” Mount Schank consists of land adjoining both sides of the

Riddoch Highway Riddoch Highway is a rural highway in south-eastern South Australia, designated as route A66 between Keith and Mount Gambier, with the remainder between Mount Gambier and Port MacDonnell designated as route B66. It is named after John Riddoch, t ...

between Mount Gambier to the north and Port MacDonnell to the south. The locality includes a number of geological features consisting of the dormant volcano,

Mount Schank Mount Schank is a high dormant volcano in the southeast corner of South Australia, near Mount Gambier. It was sighted by James Grant on 3 December 1800 and named after Admiral John Schank, designer of Grant's ship, HMS '' Lady Nelson''. Mount ...

, which is located on the eastern side of the Riddoch Highway and a number of water-filled

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

s such as the

Little Blue Lake Little Blue Lake is a water-filled doline in the Australian state of South Australia located in the state's south-east in the locality of Mount Schank about south of the municipal seat of Mount Gambier. It is notable locally as a swimming ...

located on land to the west of the Riddoch Highway. The majority land use within the locality is

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

with an area located between the Riddoch highway and the western side of the dormant volcano is zoned for industrial purposes. The following places within Mount Schank are listed on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. ...

- Mount Salt Limestone Track and Mount Schank state heritage area The 2016 Australian census which was conducted in August 2016 reports that Mount Schank had a population of 249 people. Mount Schank is located within the federal

division of Barker The Division of Barker is an Australian Electoral Division in the south-east of South Australia. The division was established on 2 October 1903, when South Australia's original single multi-member division was split into seven single-member div ...

, the state

electoral district of Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It covers the far south-east corner of the state containing the City of Mount Gambier and District Council of Grant local government areas. It is ce ...

and the local government area of the

District Council of Grant The District Council of Grant is a local government area located in the Limestone Coast region of South Australia, and is the southernmost council in the state. The council was formed on 1 July 1996 after the amalgamation of the District Cou ...

References

{{authority control Towns in South Australia Limestone Coast