Tourist Information Centre and Craft Shop
National Parks Surrounding Tintinara
Tintinara Homestead
O'Deas Cottage
Leisure Activities and Sport in Tintinara
History of Tintinara and Surrounding Area

Tourist Information Centre and Craft Shop


Heart of the Parks log

The Heart of the Parks tourist information centre and craft shop is situated in the old railway station, opposite the shops on Dukes Highway in Tintinara. It is entirely run by volunteers and is open 7 days a week.

The Centre can provide tourist information for anything in the surrounding area and indeed for the rest of the South-East of SA and the "Big River Country"

The craft shop is a treasure trove of locally produced items awaiting your discovery.

Catering for all ages and tastes, their range of high quality goods include handpainted glassware, dried flower arrangements, fresh herbs and bouquets, patchwork rugs, wool embroidery, chocolates, picture frames and mirrors, and much more.

Credit cards and Lay-by are welcome.

The Heart of the Parks centre also take bookings for 'Premier' coaches which travel daily from Mt.Gambier to Adelaide and vice-versa. The Tintinara stop for the coaches is at the "Heart of the Parks" shop.

The centre has won several awards, including Tourism SE's "Tourism retailing" award, a State Tourism award, and an Australia Day award.

The centre can be contacted on (08) 8757 2220.
or email:

National Parks Surrounding Tintinara



Driving in the Parks

The real skill in travelling the tracks in this area is to leave no trace. Stay in the wheel ruts and don't follow or create new side tracks. The speed limit is 40 kph.

Motor cyclists please remember that the vegetated ridge in the centre of the track is vital to soil stability. Please use the wheel ruts only.

Recommended tyre pressures are 18-22 psi or 120-150 kPa for better traction.

Observe the "track closed for vermin control" signs. These are for your safety. All vehicles must be registered and driven by licensed drivers. Engage four-wheel drive at all times. When negotiating single-lane tracks on sandhills, beware of oncoming traffic.

Ngarkat Conservation Park

Ngarkat Conservation Park, named after the Aboriginal tribe who used to inhabit the area, is one of the largest mallee parks in the state. The park covers a total area of 270,152 ha (nearly 600,000 acres), which also includes the adjoining parks of Mt Rescue, Scorpion Springs, and Mt Shaugh.

The park offers an abundance of wildlife. There 14 different types of honeyeaters and thornbills; wrens and whistlers are also common. If you are lucky, you may see the rare Mallee Fowl, the Rufous-crowned Emu-wren, Western Whipbird, and the Red-lored Whistler.

Some of the more interesting native mammals such as pygmy possums, marsupial and hopping mice are nocturnal, so you may catch a glimpse of them by use of a spotlight, or find their tracks in the sand in the morning.

You should, however, see echidnas and western grey kangaroos, as well as dragon lizards, skinks and snakes.Some 22 kinds of reptiles have been recorded.

Large Orange Jewel Beetles, which are attracted to orange objects, emerge in late spring, forewarning of the hot weather to come.

The park is fantastic for a real "get away from it all" weekend. Because of the park's remoteness, it is only accessible to 4WD vehicles, and you will need a camping permit if camping in the park. You will also need to carry with you all your own food, water, maps, fuel and spare tyres.

Also bring a pump or compressor to reinflate tyres, and a gas cooker. If possible, bring some firewood. Fire restrictions to "gas only" operate from November to April due to the high susceptibility of the area to wildfire.

The best times to visit are late autumn, winter and early spring. Your enjoyment of the park may be limited by extreme temperatures during summer.

Coorong National Park

The Coorong is a long thin naturally occurring body of water. It is situated along the southern coastal boundary of our National Parks District.

Named by the Karangh tribe of Aborigines, The Coorong stretches 135 kilometres south from the Murray River mouth. Features created by this body of water include scattered islands, swampy marshes, salt pans, seeping water bogs, rock lined shores and tea-tree swamps.

A main feature of the Coorong is the Younghusband Peninsula. This ninety mile stretch of land remains largely untouched from its isolation from main transport routes. Flowing dunes highlight this landscape created by forces of wind and stabilizing character of Marrum grass.

The Park is abundant with wildlife. Water birds take refuge on the many scattered islands during their mating seasons. Pelicans, Waterfowl, Wader birds, Plovers, and Ducks of all species may be seen. Excepting a 20 km stretch for game hunting, the entire length of the Coorong is a designated National Park.

Messent Conservation Park

The western and much of the northern part of the park are mostly dunes with limestone outcrops. The central, southern and north-eastern parts are sedge flats, subject to partial flooding in the wet season.

Common Wombats and Western Grey Kangaroos graze the sedgeland of cutting grass and black rush at night. At rhe break of day the kangaroos seek shelter in the dense thickets of tea-tree fringing the flats and among the large Pink Gums along the wetter margins. These give way to Brown Stringybarks on the slopes and the to White and Ridge-fruited Mallees, Desert Banksias, Fringe-Myrtle and Yaccas on the higher land.

This is the home of Pygmy-Possums and Silky Mice and produces spectacular wildflower displays during spring. Short-beaked Echidnas and reptiles such as Shinglebacks, Earless Dragons, small Skinks and Brown Snakes move among the bark and leaf litter of the scrub floor, where the Mallee Fowl forage. Emus range over the green flats while water fowl frequent the ephemeral swamps on the northern boundary.

Conventional vehicle access is from Tintinara or Salt Creek. The only internal track you may use is from the south-western corner to the north-eastern corner. Known as the "Central Track", it provides a sequence of all the vegetation associations occurring in the park. Only four-wheel drive vehicles can use it.

Mount Boothby Conservation Park

Granite rocks which break the surface in small areas of the park are surrounded by small groves of Blue Gum. The limestone and sandy ridges have a cover of Coastal Wattle, Rich-fruited and Slender-leaved Mallees with Heath understorey. Dwarf Oaks, Prickly Tea-Trees, Yaccas, and desert Banksias grow on the sand flats. There is also a low woodland of Pink Gum with Heath understorey.

Adding colour to the park during spring are many different kinds of Orchids.

Malle Fowl breed here, and you may see western grey Kangaroos and Short-beaked Echidnas.

Best access is from Tintinara via the Tourist Drive or the WoodsWell - Culburra road. Conventional vehicles can use the Summit track, but caution is needed. The nearby Boothby Rocks Council reserve is a good picnic site.

Accommodation

Tintinara Homestead


Tintinara Homestead

The Tintinara Homestead is the site of the original settlement in the area. The original owners were the brothers TW and JH Boothby, who purchased a lease of 165 square miles. They built a homestead and shepherd's hut.

The next pioneers to brave the area were two young men by the name of William Harding and George Bunn. They chose the locality near Tintinara, called "Jim Crow's Flat", to build their first homestead. They also built the woolshed, the timbers of which still bear the brand "H.& B.". It was one of the best sheds in the South-East and still stands as solidly as ever today. More information on the History of Tintinara and Surrounding Area is to be found further down this page.

Today the "Homestead" is caters for visitors. You can let hosts Graeme & Roslyne Harkness be your guides or you can plan your own adventure. Come and enjoy the ultimate camping getaway. Relax around the campfire while your hosts cater for you, or savour the solitude of a rural holiday, cook in a camp oven, wander in the scrub, sleep where weary shearers lay their swag.

Visit the historic buildings ...

Catering / self-catering for:

CONTACT

Graeme & Roslyne Harkness
P.O.Box 216
Tintinara, SA, 5266
Telephone & Fax: (08) 8757 2146

O'Deas Cottage

O'Deas cottage

Refreshingly different, O'Deas is somewhere special, along the Dukes Highway -

The early 1900s stone homestead is fully self-contained and central to ten Conservation Parks.

Refurbished with fresh country ideas, O'Deas extends a warm welcoming atmosphere while providing Queen and twin rooms, with electric blankets, crisp cotton linen and bathrobes, warming open fires or wide cooling verandahs and hearty country breakfasts.

O'Deas verandah

Yours to unwind and enjoy....
Perhaps a relaxing weekend away or a short overnight stay!

From the Guest Book:

"What a lovely place, wish we could stay forever!!!"

"A treasure for the last night of our holiday. Thank you."

"Please don't change, this is just superb."

directions to O'Dea's

Enjoy the "Tintinara Experience"....



For more information and bookings, please contact Prin:

Ph/Fax: (08) 8575 8023
Mobile: 0409 575 023
Email: prin@lm.net.au

write to:
PO Box 90, Culburra
South Australia 5261

or visit Website: www.odeascottage.com.au


Leisure and Sport in Tintinara

Lawn Bowls

Lawn Bowlers will find two excellent Greens adjacent to the school and visiting enthusiasts are always welcome

Tennis

For more active persons, whose game is tennis, there are eight hard-courts, sheltered by towering pine trees. The annual Easter tennis tournament has been a feature of the sporting calender for may years

Golf

Intending golfers need only drive 10 km south-east along the highway to the railway crossing at Terrapee, where signs will lead to a picturesque and challenging golf course.
This 18-hole course was carved from virgin scrub thirty years ago, and steady improvements since have created the finest scrapes course in the South-East.

A first class club house caters to all needs of golfers. It is sited on the high ground overlooking the first tee and several tree-lined fairways, and provides a fine spot for viewing the many kangaroos which make this golf course their home.

A modest green fee is required and play is possible all year round, although summer conditions limit the number of holes available for play

History of Tintinara and Surrounding Area

Police Inspector Tolmer pioneered a track from Adelaide to the Mt. Alaxander goldfields in Victoria and by 1852 Government wells and direction boards were erected along this route. The wells at the Homestead and Reedy Wells were regular watering points for Tolmer's Escort team.

The first settlers to the area were T.W & J.H. Boothby, sons of the Judge of the Surpreme Court of SA, Benjamin Boothby. They Purchased a lease of 165 sq.miles and formed a station known as 'Tintinara' - a name derived from their Aboriginal workman, Tin Tin, a member of the Coorong Tribe. The original settlement is at the Tintinara Homestead, 7 km west of the township.

The Boothby brothers were followed by pioneers william Harding and George Bunn, who, in 1865, built the magnificent 16-stand shearing shed. Features of the shed are the 80 cm thick limestone walls and the supporting oregon timbers, almost 11 m long, which were carted from Kingston by bullock drays

Both the Tintinara Homestead and the shearing shed are classified by the National Trust.