Wirrina Cove is a locality and holiday resort on the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia. It is located between the coastal towns of

Second Valley The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

and Normanville on

Yankalilla Bay Yankalilla Bay is a long, wide bay in south-eastern South Australia, on the Fleurieu Peninsula. It is on the south-eastern coast of the Gulf St Vincent, as it opens into the Southern Ocean. Three rivers discharge into the bay: the Bungala River, ...

. The holiday resort was developed from around 1972, and is located about south of Adelaide. There are various overlapping names associated with the Wirrina Cove area recorded as being used by the Kaurna people before the British colonisation of South Australia: Congeratinga (with a creek now given that name), also spelt Kongaratinga, Yarnauwingga, and Anacotilla. The location is also associated with the Dreaming story of creator ancestor

Tjilbruke Tjilbruke (also Tjirbruki, Tjilbruki, Tjirbruke, Tjirbuk or Tjirbuki,) is an important creation ancestor for the Kaurna of the Adelaide plains in the Australian state of South Australia. Tjilbruke was a Kaurna man, who appeared in Kaurna Dream ...

. Today, features at Wirrina cove include

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...

named Marina St. Vincent, the New Terry Hotel & Golf Resort, a variety of camping and other holiday accommodation at the Wirrina Cove Holiday Park other accommodation options. Little Gorge, near which the HMAS ''Hobart'' Memorial Lookout is located, is north of the cove, on the road to Normanville.

Kaurna history

Before European settlement, the Wirrina Cove area, along with most of the

Adelaide plains The Adelaide Plains (Kaurna name Tarndanya) is a plain in South Australia lying between the coast (Gulf St Vincent) on the west and the Mount Lofty Ranges on the east. The southernmost tip of the plain is in the southern seaside suburbs of Ade ...

area and down the western side of the Fleurieu Peninsula, was inhabited by the traditional owners, the Kaurna people. There is a significant site associated with the Kaurna Dreaming of the creator ancestor Tjilbruke, where his tears are said to have created a

freshwater spring A spring is a point of exit at which groundwater from an aquifer flows out on top of Earth's crust (pedosphere) and becomes surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere. Springs have long been important for humans as a source of fresh w ...

there. This is the sixth spring on the Tjilbruke Dreaming Trail, and there is a

commemorative plaque A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...

at the entrance forecourt to Wirrina Cove Resort. Other Kaurna names associated with the area are Congeratinga / Kongaratinga, Yarnauwingga, and Anacotilla, although their origins are not clear. The name Kongarati Cave ( Norman Tindale spelling) is also associated with the Tjilbruke story, as being near Rapid Bay.

"Wirrina" name origin

The word "Wirrina" is not a Kaurna word or word from a South Australian language. The original developers of the resort, Holiday Village Co-operative Ltd, adopted the name in 1972, probably extracting it from H.M. Cooper’s ''Australian Aboriginal Words and Their Meanings'' (1949). Cooper lists it as meaning "Somewhere to go”, and the word is thought to originate in an interstate language group, possibly from the Gwydir and Barwon Rivers of New South Wales.

Ecology

There is a creek known as Congeratina Creek, recorded in 2015 as a "flowing brackish creek in autumn 2015 but dry in spring", with the aquatic ecosystem in "fair" condition. The surrounding vegetation was described as "mostly introduced weedy species and gum trees with cattle grazing beyond".

Resort and land ownership

The resort did well in the 1980s, but after that it changed hands five times before falling into receivership in 1992. After being bought again it briefly revived, and was refurbished in 1995–6, but again fell into receivership in 2012, after losing a million dollars a year. The whole package of land owned, by David Whyte of BDO and Wirrina Corporation Pty Ltd and including the resort, caravan park, marina berths and lease, and some developed and undeveloped land, was broken up at the time of sale in 2013, with a total of paid for the acquisitions. The Auckland-based hotel chain VR Group bought the resort, and spent over on upgrading most of the 87 rooms, the tennis courts,

mini-golf Miniature golf, also known as minigolf, mini-putt, crazy golf, or putt-putt, is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest number of points. It is played ...

course and gym, ready to re-open in April 2014. In 2019 the resort again changed hands, renamed the New Terry Hotel & Golf Resort and packaged to attract Chinese tourists by its new owner Andie Xu. The name is derived from the sound of Chinese words meaning peace, ''te'' and success, ''rry'', and the menu features both Chinese and Australian dishes. Accommodation and other facilities are available at the resort.

Marina

The Wirrina Cove marina received planning approval from the

Government of South Australia The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

in 1988. Construction was expected to start in 1989 and take 10 months to complete. It was intended to support regional tourism opportunities, including sunset cruises and day trips across Backstairs Passage to Kangaroo Island. At the time of its construction, it was described as a $45 million project. After its completion, the marina was renamed Marina St. Vincent. The state government took over ownership of the 210-berth Wirrina Cove Marina (Marina St Vincent) on 30 March 2020, with staff from the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (now Dept of Infrastructure and Transport) having responsibility for day-to-day operations. This came after a long court battle, when the

Supreme Court of South Australia The Supreme Court of South Australia is the superior court of the Australian state of South Australia. The Supreme Court is the highest South Australian court in the Australian court hierarchy. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in ...

gave an eviction notice to Stephen Marks and his company New Wave Aerospace (NWA) in March 2020. The order was made because of an unpaid bill for

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

, worth about . The site was reported to be "in a state of disrepair, with discarded assets strewn across the site" in June 2020, with berth-holders concerned about their losses.

Other facilities and attractions

There is a variety of camping and other holiday accommodation at the Wirrina Cove Holiday Park, and there is a number of private homes available for sale and rent. The HMAS ''Hobart'' Memorial Lookout is located is north of the cove, near Little Gorge, on the road to Normanville. It provides viewing of the

Fleurieu Artificial Reef HMAS ''Hobart'' (D 39) was a guided missile destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built in the United States of America to a slight variant of the United States Navy (USN) , she was commissioned into the RAN in 1965. In March 1967, ''H ...

created by the sinking of the ship.

References

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