An Enigma: Two Innamincka Cattle Stations and Three Small Ruins in South Australia

Innamincka Station, South Australia, built by Henry Colless on the northern bank of Cooper Creek in 1875, was, until recently, believed be the original Innamincka Station. This belief is now challenged by the discovery of three small ruins on the south bank of Cooper Creek and the identification of a little-known pioneering venture of courage and youthful exuberance. Searches through a tangle of archives identified evidence that these humble ruins are the site of an earlier Innamincka Station homestead built by Robert Bostock in 1873. The site also contained a transient postcontact Aboriginal camp containing evidence that the Yandruwandha people maintained their traditional culture through the transfer of traditional lithic technologies to glass following the abandonment of the homestead in 1880. In addition, the analysis of manufactured artifacts associated with other features provided insights into the "station diet" of the pastoralists and the hardships they experienced in this harsh environment.