__NOTOC__ Poonindie is a small township near

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a city on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of South Australia. Known as Galinyala by the traditional owners, the Barngarla people, it is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, ...

on the

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Earlier called Eyre's Peninsula, it was named after e ...

, South Australia. The township is situated in the historic Country of the

Nauo The Nauo people, also spelt Nawu and Nhawu, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the south-western Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. The Nauo language became extinct by the twentieth century, but efforts are being made to revive it. Countr ...

People (an Australian Indigenous community), though it is within the modern governmentally recognised territorial borders of the

Barngarla The Barngarla, (historically also spelled as Parnkalla or Pangkala), are an Indigenous people of South Australia and the traditional owners of much of Eyre Peninsula. Their language, Barngarla is a Yura language and part of a revival effo ...

People. Poonindie Mission was established as a

mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

for Aboriginal people 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 ...

in 1850, at the instigation of the first Archdeacon of Adelaide, Mathew Hale, who also served as superintendent for several years. St Matthew's church, built in 1854-55 and originally intended to be the school, served both the mission and the local community. It survives and remains in use today. Hale ran the Aboriginal Training Institution at the mission. His friend, the

Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide The Archbishop of Adelaide is the diocesan bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide, Australia and ''ex officio'' metropolitan bishop In Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropoli ...

Augustus Short Augustus Short (11 June 1802 – 5 October 1883) was the first Anglicanism, Anglican bishop of Adelaide, South Australia. Early life and career Born at Bickham House, near Exeter, Devon, England, the third son of Charles Short, a London bar ...

, visited the mission, which prospered. The mission closed after 44 years, after which the land was divided and sold, with just St Matthew's and a small area of land remaining the property of the Anglican Church. of land became an

Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th ...

when the Mission closed in 1894. Most of the residents were moved to

Point Pearce Point Pearce, also spelt Point Pierce in the past, is a town in the Australian state of South Australia. The town is located in the Yorke Peninsula Council local government area, north-west of the state capital, Adelaide. It is known for the ...

and

Point McLeay Raukkan is an Australian Aboriginal community situated on the south-eastern shore of Lake Alexandrina in the locality of Narrung, southeast of the centre of South Australia's capital, Adelaide. Raukkan is "regarded as the home and heartland o ...

missions, while others moved to the nearby Aboriginal reserve, but a small number of residents remained on the mission site until the 1910s. The institution is named in the ''

Bringing Them Home ''Bringing Them Home'' is the 1997 Australian ''Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families''. The report marked a pivotal moment in the controversy that has come to ...

'' report, as one which housed Indigenous children forcibly removed from their parents and thus creating the

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...

. The former reserve is now an Aboriginal self-managed Aboriginal community called Akenta, run by Akenta Incorporated. Pooonindie Uniting Church lies to the north of the township.

Heritage listings

Poonindie has a number of sites associated with the former mission 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'' ...

, including: * Poonindie Mission Bakehouse Complex and Well * Poonindie Mission Superintendent's Residence * Poonindie Cemetery * Poonindie Mission Schoolhouse * St Matthew's Anglican Church

Heritage listings

See also

Other 19th century Aboriginal missions in SA

References

Further reading