Map - Mount Schank, South Australia (Mount Schank)

Mount Schank (Mount Schank)
Mount Schank is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located about 385 km south-east of the state capital of Adelaide and 14 km south of the municipal seat of Mount Gambier in the south-east of the state.

British colonisation of the area began in 1842 when brothers Edward and Fortescue Arthur (sons of Sir George Arthur) established the Mount Schank Station. The Arthur brothers were in continuous conflict with the local Bungandidj people from the time of their arrival. Many of their shepherds absconded, horses were speared and hundreds of their sheep were taken. The brothers had to do much of the shepherding work themselves and often engaged in close combat with "the Blacks". On one occasion Fortescue was slightly wounded after being speared. After capturing and chaining up a Bungandidj man, Edward forced him to reveal the location of their camp. An armed group of settlers was then organised by Edward and the Aboriginal camp was raided and destroyed, with six or eight Bungandidj being killed. The Arthur brothers could not sustain the effort of keeping the sheep station and with ruinous financial losses they sold out to Robert Leake of nearby Glencoe station in 1844.

The Clarke family then owned Mount Schank station for around 140 years before it was bought in 2005 by former Chairman of the AFL, Ron Evans. In 2017 the property was valued at around fifty million dollars.

Part of Mount Schank became a private sub-division of land within the cadastral unit of the Hundred of MacDonnell. Boundaries were created on 31 October 1996 for the “long established name.”

Mount Schank consists of land adjoining both sides of the Riddoch Highway between Mount Gambier to the north and Port MacDonnell to the south. The locality includes a number of geological features consisting of the dormant volcano, Mount Schank, which is located on the eastern side of the Riddoch Highway and a number of water-filled sinkholes such as the Little Blue Lake located on land to the west of the Riddoch Highway. The majority land use within the locality is agriculture with an area located between the Riddoch highway and the western side of the dormant volcano is zoned for industrial purposes.

The following places within Mount Schank are listed on the South Australian Heritage Register - Mount Salt Limestone Track and Mount Schank state heritage area

The 2016 Australian census which was conducted in August 2016 reports that Mount Schank had a population of 249 people.

Mount Schank is located within the federal division of Barker, the state electoral district of Mount Gambier and the local government area of the District Council of Grant.

 
Map - Mount Schank (Mount Schank)
Country - Australia
Flag of Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7617930 km2, Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy.
Currency / Language  
ISO Currency Symbol Significant figures
AUD Australian dollar $ 2
ISO Language
EN English language
Neighbourhood - Country