__NOTOC__ Poonindie is a small township near

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

on the

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named aft ...

, South Australia. The land upon which it sits was originally the land of the

Barngarla The Barngarla, formerly known as Parnkalla and also known as Pangkala, are an Aboriginal people of the Port Lincoln, Whyalla and Port Augusta areas. The Barngarla are the traditional owners of much of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Language ...

people. Poonindie Mission was established as a

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

for Aboriginal people 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 ...

in 1850, at the instigation of the first Archdeacon of Adelaide, Mathew Hale, who also served as superintendent for several years. St Matthew's church, built in 1854-55 and originally intended to be the school, served both the mission and the local community. It survives and remains in use today. Hale ran the Aboriginal Training Institution at the mission. His friend, the

Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide The archbishop of Adelaide is the diocesan bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide, Australia and ''ex officio'' metropolitan bishop In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (al ...

Augustus Short Augustus Short (11 June 1802 – 5 October 1883) was the first Anglican bishop of Adelaide, South Australia. Early life and career Born at Bickham House, near Exeter, Devon, England, the third son of Charles Short, a London barrister, offsp ...

, visited the mission, which prospered. The mission closed after 44 years, after which the land was divided and sold, with just St Matthew's and a small area of land remaining the property of the Anglican Church. of land was became an

Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...

when the Mission closed in 1894. Most of the residents were moved to

Point Pearce Point Pearce, also spelt Point Pierce in the past, is a town in the Australian state of South Australia. The town is located in the Yorke Peninsula Council local government area, north-west of the state capital, Adelaide. At the , Point Pearce h ...

and

Point McLeay Raukkan is an Australian Aboriginal community situated on the south-eastern shore of Lake Alexandrina in the locality of Narrung, southeast of the centre of South Australia's capital, Adelaide. Raukkan is "regarded as the home and heartland o ...

missions, while others moved to the nearby Aboriginal reserve, but a small number of residents remained on the mission site until the 1910s. The institution is named in the ''

Bringing Them Home ''Bringing Them Home'' is the 1997 Australian ''Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families''. The report marked a pivotal moment in the controversy that has come to ...

'' report, as one which housed Indigenous children forcibly removed from their parents and thus creating the

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...

. The former reserve is now an Aboriginal self-managed Aboriginal community called Akenta, run by Akenta Incorporated. Pooonindie Uniting Church lies to the north of the township.

Heritage listings

Poonindie has a number of sites associated with the former mission 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. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

, including: * Poonindie Mission Bakehouse Complex and Well * Poonindie Mission Superintendent's Residence * Poonindie Cemetery * Poonindie Mission Schoolhouse * St Matthew's Anglican Church

Heritage listings

See also

Other 19th century Aboriginal missions in SA

References

Further reading