Meningie ( ) is a town on the south-east side of Lake Albert in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. It is on the

Princes Highway Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former ...

near

The Coorong Coorong National Park is a protected area located in South Australia about south-east of Adelaide, that predominantly covers a coastal lagoon ecosystem officially known as The Coorong and the Younghusband Peninsula on the Coorong's southern ...

and was surveyed in 1866.

History

The word ''Meningie'' is derived from "the Aboriginal word 'meningeng' meaning 'place of mud. The town was surveyed between March and June 1866 by W. Farquhar without any proclamation. Land was offered for sale on 23 August 1866. The name also was used for an "adjoining private subdivision of sections 104, 106/9 and 111" in the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Bonney. A school was opened in 1869. A jetty was erected in 1867, with paddle steamers operating between Meningie and other ports on Lake Albert and Lake Alexandrina until 1927/1928. The town ceased to operate as a port in December 1936. Boundaries for the locality were created for the "long established name" on 24 August 2000 and which include the Government Town of Meningie. Meningie was the first place in Australia to have

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over Copper wire, copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem ...

broadband installed without using a

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...

DSLAM A digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM, often pronounced ''DEE-slam'') is a network device, often located in telephone exchanges, that connects multiple customer digital subscriber line (DSL) interfaces to a high-speed digital co ...

. Agile Communications installed their own DSLAM in Meningie in October 2003, following on from having established a microwave network connecting to Adelaide in May 2001. Agile's associated

internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

, Internode Systems offered services through this DSLAM.

Climate

Meningie has a

warm-summer mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

( Köppen: Csb), with warm, dry summers and mild, wetter winters. Mean maxima vary from in February to in July, while mean minima fluctuate between in January and in July. Annual

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

is moderately low, averaging between 123.5 precipitation days. Despite this, the town has 61.0 clear days and 120.7 cloudy days per annum. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 24 January 2019 to on 22 July 1972.

Tourism

Meningie has attractions and amenities for travellers and is the closest township to the Coorong National Park. The Lake provides visitors with many scenic locations and places to fish, swim, kayak, jet ski and water ski / wake-board. Bird watchers also enjoy coming to see the range of rare and vulnerable wildlife that the Lake and wetlands support. There are local 4WD tracks, bush walking trails, and indigenous cultural journeys at Camp Coorong. The Meningie Cheese Factory Museum Inc. is wholly owned and operated by volunteers, and is both educational and a tourist attraction for the town. It is alongside the Cheese Factory Restaurant and the Lake Albert Caravan Park which is directly opposite. In May 2013, a statue of an ostrich wearing a saddle was unveiled to commemorate the story of a local Irish bushranger, John Francis Peggotty, also known as "Birdman of the Coorong".

Media

Meningie is home to ''The Lakelander'', a regional community newspaper whose geographical coverage includes Tailem Bend, Salt Creek, Narrung, Coonalpyn and Tintinara. The newspaper, first issued on 25 June 1976, is published in a magazine format.

Sports

Meningie has a strong sporting culture, and has a well maintained oval, a fully watered, par 72, 18-hole golf course, bike tracks/ motocross jumps, sailing club, and also an airstrip for gliders, light aircraft and balloons. Meningie has a local

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

club, founded around 1890, known as the Meningie Bears. On 12 December 2007, Meningie player Brodie Martin was rookie listed to

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL) club

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, becoming the first player from Meningie to be play for an AFL club. the league coach is Alex Scott. Other sporting clubs in Meningie include the Meningie Motorcycle Club, Lake Albert Golf Club, Meningie Sailing Club, Meningie Bowling Club, Meningie Pony Club, Meningie Netball Club, Meningie Aero Club and Lake Albert Gun Club. There is also a Meningie Garden Club, Meningie & Districts Lions Club, and several church groups that meet regularly.

Governance

Meningie is located within the federal division of Barker, the state electoral district of MacKillop, and the local government area of the

Coorong District Council Coorong District Council is a Local government in Australia, local government area in South Australia located between the River Murray and the Limestone Coast region. The district covers mostly rural areas with small townships, as well as part ...

References

External links

Meningie Cheese Factory Museum IncMeningie History
{{authority control Towns in South Australia