![William Creek Public Solar Phone](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/William_Creek_Public_Solar_Phone.jpg)
William Creek,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
is located halfway on the
Oodnadatta Track, north west of
Marree and east of
Coober Pedy
Coober Pedy () is a town in northern South Australia, north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. Coober Pedy is ...
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 ...
. The town has a permanent population of 10. William Creek is in the federal
Division of Grey
The Division of Grey is an Australian electoral division in South Australia. The division was one of the seven established when the former Division of South Australia was redistributed on 2 October 1903 and is named for Sir George Grey, who wa ...
and the state electorate of Stuart. It is outside of council areas, and administered by the
Outback Communities Authority.
Location
William Creek is the entry point from Coober Pedy to
Lake Eyre
Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the ...
in the
Tirari Desert
The Tirari Desert is a desert in the eastern part of the Far North region of South Australia. It stretches 212 km from north to south and 153 km from east to west.
Location and description
The Tirari Desert features salt lakes and ...
. William Creek offers the only petrol station between Marree, Coober Pedy and
Oodnadatta on the
Oodnadatta Track and has a campground, two motels and one of the world's most remote pubs. The world's largest
cattle station is located in nearby
Anna Creek Station and the
Woomera Prohibited Area, is also nearby.
William Creek is a good halfway stop along the track, with accommodation and meals at the Hotel as well as a well-maintained, if somewhat dusty campground. In the Memorial Park it is possible to see many diverse items although more sobering is the commemorative inscription to a young Austrian woman, who lost her life in 1998 trying to walk back to William Creek from a
4WD
Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...
vehicle bogged in the sand beside Lake Eyre. The first stage of the
Black Arrow Rocket, Britain's only successful independent
space launch was recovered from the surrounding Anna Creek Station and located in the memorial park for nearly 50 years but has been recently brought back to the UK by technology firm
Skyrora
Skyrora Ltd is a private space company based in the United Kingdom since 2017.
The company specialises in the design and manufacture of modular disassemblable rocket launch vehicles, specifically for the launch of small satellites, and portable ...
.
William Creek is serviced twice weekly by the
Coober Pedy Oodnadatta One Day Mail Run
The Coober Pedy Oodnadatta One Day Mail Run is a 4WD mail service in the outback of South Australia.
Twice a week, the OKA 4wd, OKA bus travels from Coober Pedy to William Creek to Oodnadatta and then back to Coober Pedy, on unsealed roads. Th ...
. The 4WD mail truck also carries some general freight and passengers.
History
William Creek is on the traditional lands of the
Arabana people. In May 2012, the Federal Court granted the Arabana people native title to more than 68,000 square kilometres in the region.
The name William Creek was given to the area in November 1859 by explorer
John McDouall Stuart
John McDouall Stuart (7 September 18155 June 1866), often referred to as simply "McDouall Stuart", was a Scottish explorer and one of the most accomplished of all Australia's inland explorers.
Stuart led the first successful expedition to tra ...
during his expeditions in the area. William was the second son of
John Chambers, a pioneer pastoralist of South Australia and a strong ally of Stuart.
A small settlement arose in the late 1880s as a result of the railway. Although, work on the Great Northern railway (which we now know as
The Ghan
''The Ghan'' is an experiential tourism oriented passenger train service that operates between the northern and southern coasts of Australia, through the cities of Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin on the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor. O ...
) commenced in the 1878 near Port Augusta,
it took a decade for the line to reach William Creek, in June 1889. Work on the line continued, ultimately linking Port Augusta to
Oodnadatta which became the northern railhead until the late 1920s. As large work parties flowed into the area, a boarding house was established there in 1886 and James Jagoe's Eating house is recorded to be there in October 1886. In 1890, Henry Lane received a 'wine license' for the site and assume Jagoe's business and facilities. In 1911, Gilbert Reed describes a whistle-stop on a train journey to Oodnadatta; he eats at Paige's boarding house -- the meal is goat, dressed up as mutton.
In 1896, William Creek became a repeater station on the
Australian Overland Telegraph Line
The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was a telegraphy system to send messages over long distances using cables and electric signals. It spanned between Darwin, in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and Adelaide, the capital o ...
with William Charles Brennan (b. 1861-1918) as the first Station Master. It replaced nearby Strangways Springs which was decommissioned and reverted to pastoral lands.
Early tourists to the area were mesmerized by the vast expanses, the heat, the mound springs and the distances.
The town has always been small: never larger than a few cottages, a small school and a Hotel-store. The historic
William Creek Hotel
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...
is 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'' ...
.
Near William Creek
Lake Eyre can be seen from several vantage points along the Oodnadatta Track and appears as a large, rather featureless, white saltpan. It is only from the air that its immensity can be appreciated. The curvature of the Earth can be seen on the horizon and beneath it is possible to identify the courses of the ancient rivers that still occasionally flow into the lake. Trevor Wright and the pilots from Wrightsair
take up to five passengers for a 60-minute flight out of William Creek, passing over the spectacular Painted Hills to the west, then along the southern edge of the lake, pointing out the features beneath and explaining the topography. The Painted Hills are brilliantly coloured eroded sandstone ridges. These, and all of the country traversed in the one-hour flight, are part of Anna Creek Station. From the air the Track can be seen, stretching to the horizon in two directions.
References
External links
Memorial Park at William CreekA model of the William Creek Hotel in Google 3D Warehouse
{{authority control
Far North (South Australia)
Places in the unincorporated areas of South Australia